Hcc 


...; 


BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 

•'  -.-> 


OOTE,  M,  D., 

ilphiu.  IM. 


SENATORIAL  EXCURSION  PARTY 


UNION  PACIFIC  RAILWAY,  E.  D. 


SIPIE E OKIES    OF 

SENATORS   YATES,  CATTELL,   CHANDLER,  HOWE   AND  TRUMBULL;    Ho.v. 
J.  A.  J.  CRESWELL,  HON.  JOHN   COV'ODE.  M.C..  AND 
Hox.  WM.  M.  McPHERSON.  ox 

THE  PACIFIC  RAIL  ROAD  QUESTION. 

DELIVERED  AT  THE  BANQUET  GIVEN  TO  THEM  BY  THE  CITY  COUNCIL 

AND  MERCHANTS'  EXCHANGE,  AT  THE  SOUTHERN  HOTEL, 

ST.   LOUIS.  JUNK   14,   1867. 


HELL)  AT  FORT  BARKER.  KA\.,  JUNE  7  and  8,  1HG7. 

BCHKS  OK  SRNATOKS  CAMEROX  AND  HEXDKRSOX.  KEPRKSKNTATIVES  OUTH,  XIBLACK,  STKVENS, 
LAFLIX,  HUBBARD,  NICHOLSON,  KITCHEN,  MA.I.-GEN.  HANCOCK,  AND 
Hox.  P>.  H.  BREWSTKR,  ATT'V-GKN'L  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Proceedings  of  Meeting  of  Citizens  of  New  Mexico,  held  at  Santa  Fe,  September  21,  1867,    and 
Address  of  Gen.  Wm.  J.  Palmer. 

UKl'OKT  OF  PRESIDENT  OF  UNION  PACIFIC  RAILWAY,  E.D.  MADE  TO  SflCRKTARV  OF   THK  INTERIOR, 
FOR  THE  YEAR  ENDING  SEPTEMBER  80,  is<>7. 


OF     E  .A.  It  IT  I  3ST  G-  S  ,      Sc  C  . 


ST.    LOTJIS: 
.  LEVISON,  PRINTER,  Nos.  5,  7  &  9  OLIVE  STREET. 


SENATORIAL  EXCURSION  PARTY 


UNION  PACIFIC  RAILWAY,  E.  D 


OIF1 


SENATORS  YATES,  CATTELL,  CHANDLER,  HOWE  AND  TRUMBULL;    HON. 
J.  A.  J.  CRESWELL,  HON.  JOHN  COVODE,  M.C.,  AND 
HON.  WM.  M.  McPHERSON,  ON 

THE  PACIFIC  RAIL  ROAD  QUESTION. 

DELIVERED  AT  THE  BANQUET  GIVEN  TO  THEM  BY  THE  CITY  COUNCIL 

AND  MERCHANTS'  EXCHANGE,  AT  THE  SOUTHERN  HOTEL, 

ST.  LOUIS,  JUNE   14,   1867. 


HELD  AT  FORT  HARKER,  KAN.,  JUNE  7  and  8,  1867. 

SI-KKCHES  OF  SENATORS  CAMERON  AND  HENDERSON,  REPRESENTATIVES  ORTH,  NIBLACK,  STEVENS, 

LAFLIN,  HUBBARD,  NICHOLSON,  KITCHEN,  MAJ.-GEN.  HANCOCK,  AND 

HON.  B.  H.  BREWSTER,  ATT'Y-GEN'L  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Proceedings  of  Meeting  of  Citizens  of  New  Mexico,  held  at  Santa  Fe,  September  21,  1867,    and 
Address  of  Gen.  Wm.  J.  Palmer. 

REPORT  OF  PRESIDENT  OF  UNION  PACIFIC  RAILWAY,  E.D.  MADE  TO  SECRETARY  OF   THE  INTERIOR, 
FOR  THE  YEAR  ENDING  SEPTEMBER  SO,  1867. 

EXHIBIT      OIF      E  A.  IR,  IsT  I  2sT  i 


ST.    LOUIS: 
S.  LEVISON,  PRINTER,  Nos.  5,  7  &  9  OLIVE  STREET. 

1867. 


UNIVERSITY 
SL^LJFORH\K 


(From  tlio  MISSOURI  REPUBLICAN,  Juno  15,  1867.) 

VICE-PRESIDENT  WADE'S       - 
SENATORIAL  EXCURSION  PARTY. 


A  BRILLIANT  RECEPTION  GIVEN  THEM GRAND  BANQUET  AT  THE  SOUTH 
ERN    HOTEL SPEECHES    BY     HON.    WM.    M.    M'PHERSON,     SENATORS 

YATES,  A.  G.  CATTELL,  Z.  CHANDLER,  LYMAN  TRUMBULL,  T.  O.  HOWE, 
HON.  J.  A.  J.  CRESWELL,  HON.  JOHN  COVODE,  AND  OTHERS. 


On  Friday,  our  city  was  again  -called  upon  to  welcome  and  entertain  a 
distinguished  party  of  excursionists,  and  we  think  it  may  be  said  the 
pleasant  duty  was  performed  with  that  genuine  courtesy  and  emphatic 
hospitality  which  ever  characterize  the  receptions  given  by  our  city  au 
thorities. 

Our  readers  are  already  apprised  of  the  fact  that  some  weeks  ago, 
Senator  WADE  and  a  distinguished  party  of  excursionists  from  the  East 
left  Omaha  on  a  pleasure  trip  over  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  Having 
explored  the  beauties  of  the  country  in  this  direction  as  far  as  possible, 
the  party  returned  and  went  over  the  Union  Pacific,  Eastern  Division,  as 
far  as  Fort  Hiley,  Kansas.  As  the  excursionists  returned  Eastward  by 
way  of  St.  Louis,  our  city  authorities,  in  connection  with  the  Directors  of 
the  St.  Louis  Exchange,  took  the  necessary  steps  to  give  them  a  fitting 
reception. 

The  following  Committee  of  Arrangements  was  appointed  by  the  Mayor 
and  Mr.  AMES,  Vice  President  of  the  Exchange : 

On  the  part  of  the  city — Hon.  A.  KRIECKHAUS,  Mr.  ERASTUS  WELLS, 
Mr.  CHARLES  A.  MANTZ, 


On  .the  part  of  the  Exchange — Mr.  THOMAS  RICHESON,  Mr.  H.  R. 
WHITMORE,  Mr.  C.  B.  LAMBORN,  Mr.  C.  C.  FURGESON. 

JAMES  S.  THOMAS,  Mayor,  was  requested  to  act  as  Chairman  of  the 
Committee. 

The  following  gentlemen  were  requested  to  act  as  a  Committee  of  Re 
ception,  and  to  be  at  the  Seventh  Street  depot  at  7:30  A.  M.,  to  take  the 
train  going  west  to  meet  the  excursionists  at  Meramec  Station  : 

Messrs.  GEORGE  R.  TAYLOR,  JOHN  D.  PERRY,  ISAAC  H.  STURGEON, 
THOMAS  ALLEN,  H.  C.  MOORE,  JAMES  HILL,  S.  K.  KNIGHT,  F.  M.  COL- 
BURN,  EDGAR  AMES,  ADOLPHUS  MEIER,  E.  W.  Fox,  H.  T.  BLOW,  JAS. 
B.  EADS,  BARTON  ABLE,  JOHN  How,  C.  S.  GREELEY,  Judge  SAMUEL 
TREAT  and  Gr.  B.  ALLEN. 

The  train  bearing  the  excursion  party  arrived  about  10:30  A.  M.,  and  a 
considerable  number  of  the  above  named  gentlemen  were  in  attendance. 
Carriages  were  in  waiting,  and  the  party  were  transported  to  the  Southern 
Hotel,  where  all  suitable  arrangements  for  their  entertainment  and  accom 
modation  had  been  elaborately  carried  out. 

• 

The  following  are  the  names  of  the  excursionists,  as  registered  at  the 

Southern : 

Hon.  BEN.  F.  WADE  and  wife,  U.  H.  PAINTER,  Phil  Inq.  and  wife, 
LYMAN  TRUMBULL  and  wife,  Gren'l  H.  V.  N.  BOYNTON,  Cm.  Gaz.y 
Z.  CHANDLER  and  wife,  W.  S.  SMITH,  Gin.  Times, 

"     A.  Gr.  CATTELL  and  wife,         ED.  SEYMOUR,  JV.  Y.'  Times,  and  wife, 
J.  A.  J.  CRESWELL  and  wife,  THOMAS  WHITNEY,  Chic.  Repvib., 
RICHARD  YATES,  A.  J.  CATTELL,  JR., 

T.  0.  HOWE,  Miss  M.  CHANDLER, 

JOHN  COVODE,  Miss  M.  WADE, 

D.  C.  CADWELL  and  wife,  Miss  A.  STAGER, 

GrEORGE  FRANCIS  TRAIN,  MRS.    L.  Gr.  CALHOUN,   N.   Y.   Trib., 

H.  E.  PARSONS  and  wife,  Mrs.  HICKOX,  of  Cleveland. 

Gren'l  A.  STAGER,  Supt.  W.  U.  Tel., 

During  the  afternoon,  the  party,  accompanied  by  the  Mayor  and  other 
well  known  citizens,  rode  out  to  visit  the  extensive  and  beautiful  gardens 
belonging  to  HENRY  SHAW,  Esq.  The  day,  although  somewhat  warm, 


was  charming,  and  a  soft  cooling  breeze  prevented  sultriness  in  the  atmos 
phere.  Never  perhaps  did  Tower  Grove  appear  to  better  advantage,  and 
the  visitors  expressed  the  warmest  admiration  of  the  exquisite  grounds. 
The  courteous  proprietor  was  present  and  gave  a  warm  welcome  to  the 
parly.  Elegant  refreshments  were  provided,  and  in  every  respect  the 
visit  was  a  most  pleasant  and  memorable  occasion,  and  every  member  of 
the  party  appeared  to  participate  in  the  general  enjoyment.  In  fact,  so 
pleasant  were  the  surroundings  that  a  longer  delay  took  place  than  antici 
pated,  and  it  was  near  seven  o'clock  before  the  carriages  returned  to  the 
Southern. 

THE    BANQUET. 

The  banquet  prepared  for  the  excursionists  was  appropriate  to  the  occa 
sion,  and  worthy  of  the  splendid  hotel  where  it  was  given.  About  seven 
o'clock,  the  carriages  arrived  from  Tower  Grrove,  and  shortly  afterwards 
there  was  a  general  adjournment  on  the  part  of  the  invited  guests  to  the 
spacious  parlors  up  stairs.  Here,  between  seven  and  eight  o'clock,  the 
whole  party  of  excursionists  and  tire  other  guests  gathered,  and  the  rooms, 
the  broad  lobby  at  the  head  of  the  stairway,  asumed  quite  an  animated 
appearance.  Half  an  hour  or  so  was  consumed  at  this  stage  of  the  pro 
ceedings  in  pleasant  intercourse,  introductions,  etc.,  and  the  hum  of  voices 
indicated  that  the  occasion  was  one  of  unusual  social  interest. 

At  about  eight  o'clock  the  broad  doors  of  the  magnificent  dining  hall 
were  thrown  open,  and  the  large  party  filed  into  the  lofty  room,  brilliant 
with  the  glow  of  numerous  lights  and  the  glitter  of  costly  wares  and  adorn 
ments.  The  ladies,  of  course,  went  first,  escorted  by  gentlemen,  and  were 
conducted  to  seats  at  the  different  tables.  On  entering  the  spacious  hall 
the  scene  was  one  of  great  brilliancy  and  attractiveness.  Three  long  tables, 
tastefully  decorated  with  flowers,  silver  and  porcelain,  standards  bearing 
rich-hued  fruits,  and  the  sparkle  and  glitter  of  glasses  and  elegant  silver 
wares,  formed,  of  course,  the  main  feature  of  the  attraction.  But,  as  the 
room  filled  with  the  brilliant  company,  the  animation  and  beauty  of  the 
scene  was  much  increased.  A  peculiar  feature  in  this  splendid  hall  is  the 
effect  produced  on  such  an  occasion  as  last  night  by  the  glowing  multipli 
cation  of  the  lights,  the  sparkling  tables  and  the  moving  figures  in  the 


6 

magnificent  mirrors  which  adorn  the  sides  and  southern  end  of  the  room. 
Besides  the  distinguished  excursionists,  whose  names  are  given  above, 
we  observed  a  number  of  our  prominent  citizens  who  were  seated  at  the 
banquet  tables,  among  whom  were  His  Honor,  Mayor  THOMAS,  and  the 
members  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  including  Messrs.  WELLS,  BOSBY- 
SHELL,  BABCOCK,  PARKER,  SCHOENBECK,  KRIECKHAUS,  MANTZ,  HOGAN. 
POWERS,  ETTLING  and  LANCASTER;  CHARLES  L.  TUCKER,  President  of 
the  Merchants'  Exchange ;  E.  0.  STANARD,  WM.  M.  MCPHERSON,  CAR 
LOS  S.  GREELEY,  ADOLPHUS  MEIER,  BARTON  ABLE,  J.  C.  BARLOW, 

THOMAS  RICHESON,  Hon.  JOHN  M.  KRUM,  Hon.  H.  T.  BLOW,  General 
HARNEY,  Gen'l  E.  B.  BROWN,  G-en'l  PILE  and  Gen'l  FISK. 

Some  time  was  passed  in  the  more  substantial  duties  of  the  hour,  and 
there  was  little  to  be  heard  but  the  music  of  prandial  instruments,  and 
the  murmuring  sound  of  the  desultory  conversation  incident  to  a  tempting- 
banquet. 

It  was  the  general  impression  during  the  early  part  of  the  evening  that 
when  the  banquet  was  concluded,  Senator  WADE,  and  others  of  the  dis 
tinguished  gentlemen  connected  with  the  excursion  party,  would  deliver 
speeches  appropriate  to  the  occasion  on  the  balcony,  in  front  of  the  hotel, 
and  during  the  progress  of  the  entertainment,  quite  a  crowd  collected  on 
the  street.  This  part  of  the  programme,  however,  was  not  carried  out, 
principally,  we  presume,  owing  to  the  unfavorable  character  of  the  evening, 
which  was  gloomy  and  threatening  rain. 

A  little  after  nine  o'clock,  the  practical  part  of  the  festivities  being 
terminated,  the  Hon.  WM.  M.  McPnERSON,  rose  and  said  : 

SPEECH    OF    HON.  WM.  M.    M'PHERSON. 

SENATORS,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  The  duty  has,  upon  short  notice, 
been  imposed  upon  my  be  his  Honor,  the  Mayor,  and  the  President  of  the 
Union  Merchants'  Exchange,  to  welcome  these,  our  distinguished  guests, 
to  the  hospitalities  provided  by  the  City  and  the  Merchants'  Exchange 
for  this  occasion.  We  consider  it  a  privilege  to  entertain  guests  so  distin 
guished,  and  many  of  them  so  prominent  in  the  councils  of  the  nation. 
We  are  glad  you  have  come  among  us,  where  you  can  see  and  judge  for 
yourselves  of  the  character  and  progress  of  the  Great  West,  and  to  con 
template  its  mighty  future.  We  are  glad  to  see  you  here,  in  this  central 


city  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  a  city  that  is  now,  and  must  ever  remain, 
the  commercial  centre  of  this  valley,  unless  we  lose  it  from  want  of  enter 
prise  among  our  people.  In  making  this  claim  for  St.  Louis,  I  seek  no 
contest  or  controversy  with  our  sister  city  of  the  lakes  (Chicago);  that 
city  has  shown  an  energy  of  which  her  people  may  well  be  proud ;  her 
enterprise  deserves  success,  and  I  have  no  jealousy  of  her  prosperity — her 
vocation  need  not  conflict  with  ours.  She  stands  at  the  head  of  that  vast 
chain  of  inland  seas  that  forms  such  a  remarkable  feature  in  the  commerce 
of  our  country,  and  with  her  net-work  of  railroads,  Chicago  must  continue 
to  prosper  so  long  as  Anglo-Saxon  enterprise  continues  to  exist  Saint 
Louis  has  a  destiny  of  her  own.  Standing  in  the  midst  of  this  great 
valley,  on  the  banks  of  this  mighty  river,  on  which,  with  its  tributaries, 
our  steamboats  can  find  over  thirteen  thousand  miles  to  navigate  with 
cargoes  of  produce  and  merchandise,  with  this  vast  western  country 
stretching  beyond  us,  I  have  no  doubt  about  the  prosperity  of  our  city,  and 
no  jealousy  of  the  success  of  others.  If  we  do  nor  prosper  in  the  future, 
it  will  be  our  fault.  We  have  now  a  great  city,  and  are  glad  to  welcome 
you,  our  guests,  to  it. 

It  is  unnecessary  at  this  late  hour  to  speak  of  the  history  of  St.  Louis. 
Although  old  as  an  Indian  trading  post,  it  is  comparatively  young  as  a 
commercial  city.  When  I  came  here  twenty-six  years  ago,  there  were  but 
17,000  inhabitants;  to-day  there  are  225,000.  I  speak  of  this  as  a  feature 
in  the  progress  we  are  making.  Twenty-six  years  ago,  Kansas  and  Ne 
braska  belonged  to  the  Indians,  and  Missouri  had  but  a  population  of 
385,000;  to-day  there  are  two  States  west  of  us,  with  Colorado  knocking 
for  admission,  and  we  have  a  population  of  a  million  and  a  half.  (Al- 
plause.)  Thus  it  is  that  the  progress  of  the  West  is  exemplified,  and  we 
are  gratified  when  those  of  the  older  States  come  among  us  and  see  for 
themselves  the  progress  we  are  making,  and  see  the  enterprise  of  our 
people,  devoted  as  it  is  to  the  development  of  a  country  that  still  offers 
the  best  inducements  for  additional  enterprise. 

The  West  may  truly  be  called  a  country  of  progress,  but  one  of  the 
most  striking  proofs  of  that  progress  is  in  the  construction  of  our  railroads. 
I  will  be  justified  in  alluding  to  this  subject,  because  our  honored  guests 
here  to-night  compose  a  railroad  party. 

A  few  years  ago,  our  newspapers  treated  a  letter  from  Fort  Kiley  as 
news  from  the  "Far  off  Flaws!"  At  that  time  it  was  news;  then,  by  the 
fastest  modes  of  travel,  it  was  a  journey  of  eight  or  nine  days,  while  the 
excursion  party  that  left  there  yesterday  morning,  stopping  on  the  way  at 
Topeka,  Lawrence  and  Wyandotte,  arrived  here  this  morning  at  half-past 
ton  o'clock,  making  the  trip  (including  all  delays)  in  twenty-seven  hours. 


8 

Express  trains  will  soon  make  it  in  twenty  hours.  This  gives  some  idea 
of  what  we  are  accomplishing.  Three  years  ago,  a  spade  had  not  been 
struck  in  the  ground  for  the  construction  of  a  railroad  in  Nebraska;  now 
they  have  three  hundred  and  ninety  miles  of  road  constructed  towards 
the  mountains,  and  the  work  is  progressing  at  the  rate  of  two  and  three 
miles  per  day,  a  progress  that  is  without  a  parallel  in  the  annals  of  railroad 
building.  On  the  Eastern  Division,  or  Kansas  Branch,  we  are  making 
good  progress;  our  road  is  completed  220  miles  west  of  the  Missouri  River, 
and  we  might  be  well  satisfied  if  our  Omaha  friends  did  not  keep  ahead; 
and  I  assure  you  we  are  getting  restless  under  the  idea  that  anybody  else 
is  building  roads  faster  than  we  are.  We  expect  within  the  present  year 
to  reach  Pond  Creek;  we  have  made  our  .arrangements  for  the  funds,  have 
purchased  the  iron,  and  unless  the  men  get  frightened  away  by  the  Indians, 
we  shall  be  able,  before  the  next  regular  session  of  Congress,  to  transport 
freight  and  passengers  to  Pond  Creek,  390  miles  west  of  Kansas  City, 
and  six  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles  west  of  St.  Louis.  (Applause.) 

This  is  progress  that  would  have  startled  the  old  fogies  of  a  few  years 
ago.  Then,  to  talk  about  building  roads  in  the  new  States,  with  a  sparse 
population,  was  considered  bold  if  not  chimerical,  arid  the  man  who  would 
then  have  talked  of  a  railroad  through  the  Prairies  beyond  the  States,  open 
ing  up  the  way  for  emigration,  would  have  been  called  crazy.  But  this  en 
terprise  is  demonstrating  practical  facts.  We  are  stretching  out  our  road 
over  the  prairies,  among  the  buffalo  and  the  antelope,  and  the  population 
is  fast  following.  Towns  spring  up  as  if  by  magic,  and  the  frontier  land 
offices  are  crowded  with  emigrants,  selecting  land  for  settlement. 

Another  practical  fact  is  demonstrated  in  the  great  saving  in  cost  to 
the  Government  in  the  transportation  of  supplies  across  the  plains ;  the 
difference  in  cost  to  the  Government  between  this  road  and  the  use  of 
teams  will  more  than  pay  the  interest  on  all  the  bonds  loaned  by  the 
Government  to  the  road,  to  say  nothing  of  the  advantage  of  transporting 
supplies  as  far  in  one  day  as  teams  could  carry  them  in  two  weeks. 

The  earnings  of  the  road  have  exceeded  the  most  sanguine  hopes  of  its 
managers.  Last  month,  they  amounted  to  $172,000.  $51,000  of  this 
amount  was  for  the  Government;  one  half  of  the  Government  business 
being  credited  to  the  account  of  the  bonds  issued  by  the  Government  to 
this  Company,  pays  the  month's  interest,  and  leaves  a  surplus,  which,  at 
the  same  monthly  rates,  would  pay  off  all  the  bonds  to  be  loaned  by  the 
Government  to  this  road  in  about  twenty  years. 

Another  practical  fact  is  fast  being  established  by  the  construction  of 
this  road.  Fort  Rlley  is  no  longer  of  any  use  as  a  military  post,  and  in 
forty  days  from  this  date,  Fort  Harker  will  be  equally  useless,  as  in  that 


9 

time  the  road  ought  to  be  extended  fifty  miles  beyond.  With  the  exten 
sion  of  the  road  to  Pond  Creek,  any  military  man  would  tell  you  that  at 
least  one  regiment  of  troops  could  be  dispensed  with  in  protecting  the 
commerce  and  travel  of  the  plains.  And  here  is  another  great  saving  to 
the  Government.  It  has  been  ascertained  that  it  cost  one  million  dollars 
a  year  to  keep  an  infantry  regiment  of  a  thousand  men  at  Washington 
City.  Now,  if  you  allow  fifty  per  cent  advance  for  the  cost  of  a  regiment 
of  cavalry  on  the  plains,  then  the  saving  of  the  cost  of  one  regiment  would 
be  equal  to  the  interest  on  twenty-five  million  dollars  of  Government 
bonds,  and  if  the  extension  of  this  road,  through  to  the  Pacific,  saves  to 
the  Government  the  expense  of  only  two  regiments,  that  saving  will  be 
equal  to  three  millions  of  dollars  per  annum,  or  the  interest  on  fifty  mil 
lion  dollars  of  Government  bonds ! 

Another  reason  for  the  building  of  this  road  is  the  development  of  the 
magnificent  country  along  up  the  Kansas  Valley.  Our  distinguished 
guests  will  bear  me  witness  that  the  country  they  have  just  traveled  over 
is  equal  in  beauty  and  fertility  to  any  on  this  continent;  and  I  am  told 
that  this  fertile  country  extends  for  at  least  three  hundred  miles  west  of 
Missouri.  The  rich  valleys  and  uplands  of  Kansas  must  soon  teem  with 
an  active  and  thrifty  population  that  will  give  business  sufficient  to  sup 
port  the  railroad  to  Pond  Creek,  if  it  never  goes  beyond.  We  shall  reach 
Pond  Creek  by  December,  unless  the  Indians  prevent  us,  and  I  have  full 
faith  that  General  Hancock,  with  Sherman  to  back  him,  will  take  care  of 
them;  we  shall  then  be  within  187  miles  of  Denver,  and  383  miles  of 
Santa  Fe,  both  important  points  in  our  Western  Territories,  and  both  to 
become  centres  of  great  mining  regions.  Colorado  is  fast  being  developed 
by  Eastern  capital  and  enterprise;  New  Mexico  is  known  to  be  rich  in. 
minerals,  and  many  of  her  mines  were  successfully  worked  fifty  years  ago; 
but  the  inert  native  population  have  abandoned  the  best  mines  because 
of  Indian  troubles;  rich  placers  and  paying  leads  are  no  longer  worked, 
because  the  wild  savage  prefers  the  stillness  of  the  forest  to  the  sound  of 
the  pick  and  hammer.  That  country  awaits  the  coming  of  the  railroad, 
and  with  it,  Anglo-Saxon  enterprise  to  develope  its  mines  and  stock  its 
rich  grazing  lands  with  herds  and  flocks,  that  the  Indians  dt'ire  not  drive 
away  or  destroy. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  say,  that  the  true  interests  of  the  country 
require  that  this  road  should  be  extended  not  only  to  Denver  City,  devel 
oping  on  its  way  the  extensive  Pineries  that  stretch  along  the  route  some 
sixty  or  eighty  miles,  giving  the  much  needed  lumber  for  the  fertile  plains 
of  Kansas,  and  developing  all  south-east  Colorado,  but  the  main  road 
should  go  in,  the  direction  of  Santa  Fc,  Albuquerque  and  on  to  llie  Ocean,, 


10 

by  a  route  covered  by  a  milder  climate,  less  elevations,  with  more  wood, 
water  and  agricultural  land,  than  any  yet  discovered.  On  the  route  of 
the  thirty-fifth  parallel,  the  highest  elevation  does  not  reach  seven  thou 
sand  feet,  through  a  pass  so  broad  that  it  resembles  a  valley,  and  where 
snows  can  never  obstruct  a  train. 

There  are  broad  commercial  reasons  why  this  road  should  be  so  ex 
tended.  It  opens  up  to  our  people  the  trade  of  New  Mexico,  Arizona, 
and  Southern  California,  to  say  nothing  of  the  rich  provinces  of  old 
Mexico  along  our  borders. 

When  I  came  here  twenty-six  years  ago,  St.  Louis  had  a  large  trade 
with  Chihuahua,  within  a  few  years  thereafter,  that  trade  was  lost  to  us 
because  a  shorter  land  transit  was  found  from  about  the  mouth  of  the  Rio 
Grande.  With  a  road  extended  to  Albuquerque,  this  trade,  as  well  as 
that  of  some  of  the  adjoining  provinces,  can  again  be  secured  to  swell  our 
commerce  and  increase  the  wealth  of  this  enterprising  nation. 

This  country  west  of  the  great  Mississippi  has  interests  that  cannot 
be  comprehended  without  seeing  it.  This  country  has  claims  that  ought 
not  to  be  overlooked  nor  neglected.  It  is  stated  on  good  authority,  that 
there  are  but  860,000  square  miles  of  territory  belonging  to  the  United 
States  east  of  the  Mississippi  river;  that  west  of  the  Mississippi  we  have 
2,070,000  square  miles;  that  is,  the  section  that  controls  the  legislation 
and  wealth  of  the  country  is  only  equal  in  extent  to  40  per  cent,  of  the 
territory  west  of  the  Mississippi.  The  building  of  these  national  roads 
across  the  continent  must  develope  this  vast  territory;  giving  it  popula 
tion,  wealth  and  political  power,  and  the  time  is  not  distant  when  the 
voice  of  this  empire  of  the  west  will  be  heard,  and  its  power  felt  by 
those  who  choose  to  disregard  its  claims  upon  the  nation  for  development 
and  protection. 

I  confess  that  the  subject  of  a  railroad  across  the  continent  is  one  in 
which  I  feel  great  interest;  had  I  known  in  time  that  I  should  be  called 
upon  to  preside  to-night,  I  would  have  prepared  some  statistics  showing 
the  advantages  of  the  route  crossing  the  mountains  on  the  thirty-fifth 
parallel,  but  this  I  must  pass  by.  A  route  from  this  city  by  way  of  the 
south-west  branch  to  Springfield,  and  thence  to  Neosho,  and  up  the  Cana 
dian  river,  following  out  the  thirty-fifth  parallel,  would  make  the  route 
120  miles  shorter.  But  the  Kansas  road  has  the  advantage  of  at  least 
three  years  in  construction,  which  will  more  than  compensate  for  the  addi 
tional  distance,  if  we  want  the  road;  the  road  from  Pond  Creek  can  be 
extended  to  Albuquerque  before  a  road  by  Springfield  could  be  constructed 
to  the  first  crossing  of  the  Canadian. 

In  commending  a  more  southern  route,  I  would  not  be  understood  as 


11 

having  auy  objection  to  what  is  known  as  the  Omaha  route,  now  making 
such  onward  strides  toward  the  Pacific.  Congress  has  made  provision  for 
the  early  construction  of  that  road,  and  the  men  engaged  in  its  buildin  g 
seem  to  comprehend  the  magnitude  and  grandeur  of  the  work.  Indeed, 
the  law  for  constructing  a  road  and  branches  to  the  Pacific,  was  passed 
under  circumstances  that  add  to  the  grandeur  and  glory  of  the  nation. 
It  was  passed  in  the  midst  of  the  nation's  life-struggle,  when  one-third  of 
the  country  had  risen  in  rebellion.  In  the  midst  of  a  civil  war  that  re 
quired  the  expenditure  of  millions  each  day,  when  our  bankruptcy  was 
predicted,  and  with  that  bankruptcy  the  nation's  overthrow!  I  say  it  was 
at  such  a  time  that  Congress  seemed  to  comprehend  the  magnitude  and 
importance  of  this  scheme,  and  passed  the  law  pledging  the  nation's  faith 
to  the  extent  of  fifty  million  dollars  to  secure  a  road  to  the  Pacific  through 
the  national  domain,  and  providing  for  the  defense  of  our  possessions  on 
that  far-off  shore  against  all  foreign  foes.  This  highway  is  not  one-third 
completed,  and  yet  the  nation  is  being  amply  compensated  not  only  in  the 
return  of  interest  on  the  bonds  issued,  but  in  the  facilities  for  transport 
ing  troops  and  supplies  needed  for  the  protection  of  our  commerce  and 
emigration  on  the  plains. 

The  developments  already  made  in  the  construction  of  this  road,  show 
the  necessity  of  additional  roads,  one  north  and  another  south  of  the  cen 
tral  route,  not  as  rivals  or  competitors,  but  as  necessary  for  the  commerce 
of  our  country  and  the  protection  of  our  Mexican  and  British  frontiers 
against  invasion.  The  roads  are  needed  to  accommodate  the  energy  and 
enterprise  of  a  mighty  people.  Gentlemen,  I  hope  the  day  is  not  far 
distant  when  we  shall  be  able  to  form  other  excursion  parties — destina 
tion,  the  Rocky  Mountains — and  that  we  will  be  able  to  ascend  by  rail  to 
an  altitude  where  we  can  defy  the  summer's  heat  on  the  plains  below. 

Thanking  you  for  your  kind  attention  to  my  desultory  remarks,  I  will 
resume  my  seat,  but  before  doing  so,  I  have  to  regret  that  our  distin 
guished  guest,  Vice-President  Wade,  is  absent  from  sudden  indisposition; 
he  wanted  to  address  you  upon  these  great  railroad  interests,  but  being 
too  unwell  to  be  present  he  has  requested  another  distinguished  guest, 
Governor  Yates,  of  Illinois,  to  represent  him,  Governor  Yates  will  now 
address  you,  and  not  only  speak  for  the  Vice  President,  but  also  for  the 
great  State  of  Illinois,  which  he  in  part  represents  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States. 

SPEECH  OF  SENATOR   YATES,  OF  ILLINOIS. 

Mil.  PRESIDENT: — I  desire  to  say  to  you,  and  through  you  to  the  City 


12 

Council  and  the  members  of  the  Merchants'  Exchange,  that  no  one  can 
regret  more  than  I  the  indisposition  of  Senator  Wade,  and  especially  upon 
this  occasion.  It  is  truly  embarrassing  to  be  thus  suddenly  called  upon 
to  respond  in  the  place  of  one  whom  you  are  all  so  anxious  to  hear,  and 
whom  I  believe  now  to  be  more  loved  and  honored  than  any  other  public 
man,  for  his  firm  devotion  to  the  principles  of  human  liberty  throughout 
a  long  and  illustrious  life.  (Cheers.)  As  to  replying  as  the  Chairman 
has  said  for  our  distinguished  gentlemen  here,  I  do  not  take  that  upon 
myself  at  all.  They  are  here  and  can  reply  for  themselves.  They  are 
far  abler  to  do  it  than  I  am,  and  I  trust  we  shall  hear  from  each  and  all 
of  them. 

I  cannot  claim  the  credit  of  having  journeyed  so  far  in  my  pilgrimage 
to  behold  this  fair  heritage  of  the  valleys  of  the  Mississippi,  Missouri,  the 
Kansas  and  the  Platte,  this  blooming  Eden  in  which  your  lot  has  been 
cast,  as  my  Eastern  friends;  but  none  of  them  could  have  had  a  greater 
desire  to  see  the  country  and  contemplate  its  grand  and  gorgeous  beauties 
and  its  abounding  fertility,  or  feel  a  greater  pride  in  the  contemplation  of 
your  present  prosperity  and  your  sure  and  certain  march  to  future  unex 
ampled  wealth  and  power,  than  I  have.  I  have  only  crossed  the  river  of 
the  Mississippi;  though  a  citizen  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  I  never  was  west 
of  the  Mississippi  river  three  miles  before  this  journey;  though  I  have 
been  hundreds  of  times  East,  and  down  and  up  the  river,  I  have  never 
before  traversed  this  country  three  miles  west  of  this  river;  and,  sir, 
I  was  totally  unprepared  to  witness  such  a  country  as  I  beheld. 

Why,  sir,  I  must  confess  to  a  little  jealousy  when  I  have  heard  some  of 
our  friends  comparing  Missouri,  Iowa,  Nebraska  and  Kansas  favorably 
with  Illinois,  just  as  though  any  portion  of  God's  habitable  globe  was  to 
be  compared  with  that  garden  of  the  earth,  that  young  giant  of  the  North 
west,  the  beautiful  and  prosperous  and  glorious  State  of  Illinois.  (Laugh 
ter.)  But,  sir,  I  confess  I  must  surrender  a  good  deal.  I  must  confess, 
sir,  I  have  seen  a  country  which  astonished  me.  I  confess,  moreover,  sir, 
that  I  feel  now  that  I  was  totally  unfit  and  unprepared  to  legislate  for 
the  great  interests  west  of  Mississippi,  and  this  country,  its  future  des 
tiny  and  its  future  history,  until  I  had  seen  and  contemplated  this  Great 
West  in  its  true  importance  and  its  true  magnitude. 

Sir,  we  have  just  emerged  from  a  great  war.  By  the  valor  of  our  troops 
we  have  planted  our  flags  on  every  stronghold  of  the  enemy.  Peace  is 
restored.  Sectional  jealousy  is  removed.  The  South  has  acquiesced  to  a 
reasonable  extent. — as  far  as  we  could  expect — in  the  verdict  of  the  war; 
and  the  measures  adopted  by  Congress,  reinforced  by  the  verdict  and  sanc 
tion  of  the  American  people,  will,  I  believe,  result  in  the  speedy  return 


13 

of  every  wayward  State  to  its  appropriate  place,  and  we  all  trust  and  be 
lieve  that  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  our  Union  will  again  be  restored 
with  not  a  star  obscured  or  a  strips  erased.  (Applause.) 

But,  sir,  the  war  being  over,  there  is  something  else  for  us  to  do. 
There  must  be  another  theatre  of  action.  And  now,  sir,  that  a  lasting 
peace,  as  I  trust,  is  to  be  the  heritage  of  this  country,  its  future  achieve 
ments  are  to  be  those  of  peaceful  industry,  of  commerce,  of  agriculture,  of 
the  arts  and  sciences,  and  of  religion.  We  are  to  carry,  I  believe  and 
trust,  the  institutions  which  our  fathers  established,  our  free  schools,  our 
churches,  our  religion,  all  the  recognized  institutions  of  free,  enlightened 
and  civilized  society,  to  the  Kansas,  to  the  Platte,  to  the  Rio  Grande,  to 
the  peaks  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  to  the  golden  shores  of  the  Pacific 
ocean,  to  the  Russian  possessions,  and  to  every  portion  of  the  continent 
of  North  America.  (Loud  applause.)  Mr.  President,  I  consider  that 
the  vast  country  west  of  the  Mississippi  is  the  valley  wherein  these 
achievements  of  peace  are  to  be  wrought.  I  will  venture  the  assertion 
that  there  is  no  portion  of  the  earth,  where,  during  the  present  decade,  the 
triumphs  of  peaceful  industry,  and  the  advance  of  improvement  and  mate 
rial  progress  will  be  more  visible  and  marked,  than  in  this  heaven-favored 
region  west  of  the  Mississippi  river.  If  "the  lines  ever  fell  to  a  people 
in  pleasant  places,"  they  have  fallen  to  these  people  out  on  the  western 
plains,  who  occupy  these  grand  outposts  of  settlement  in  the  progress  of 
civilization  and  Christianity,  and  in  the  triumphal  march  of  the  star  of 
empire  on  its  western  way.  (Applause.) 

Mr.  Chairman,  a  good  deal  has  been  said  and  published  about  the  re 
moval  of  the  Capitol  west,  and  more  especially  since,  during  the  war,  it 
was  accessible  only  by  a  single  railroad,  and  when,  by  the  tearing  up  of  a 
single  track,  the  whole  United  States  and  all  its  armies  and  munitions  of 
war,  were  cut  off  from  the  capital.  But,  so  far,  this  talk  has  been  consid 
ered  mere  gasconade;  but  since  I  have  seen  this  western  country  in  the 
vastness  of  its  extent,  fertility  and  resources — almost  the  first  thought 
that  strikes  me  is,  that  before  another  century  shall  elapse,  yes,  perhaps 
in  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  we  western  Senators  will  be  materially 
reduced  in  our  mileage,  and  friends  Cattell  and  Covode  will  have  their 
mileage  very  extansively  increased  by  long  distance  from  their  homes  to 
the  Capitol.  [Laughter.] 

For  here,  sir,  in  the  mighty  West,  is  to  be  found  the  power  of  the  con 
tinent.  [Applause.]  We  are  here  on  the  central  line  of  the  temperate 
clime  of  the  continent — within  that  vast  belt  running  from  the  Alleghames 
to  the  Pacific;  all  that  is  most  valuable  in  the  animal,  vegetable  and  min 
eral  kingdoms,  is  to  be  found  in  the  most  unparalleled  profusion  and 


14 

perfection.  Here  is  a  domain  of  more  than  Roman  or  Russian  boundless 
ness,  grand  in  its  mighty  outlines,  beautiful,  yea,  gorgeous  in  its  scenery, 
chequered  over  with  "deep  blue  lake  and  mighty  river,"  destined  to  be 
the  theatre  for  grand  achievements  in  American  enterprise  and  to  be  the 
homes  of  the  spreading  millions  of  American  freemen.  Yes,  Mr.  Presi 
dent,  there  are  broad  valleys  there,  mighty  lakes  and  rivers,  and  beautiful 
prairies;  mines  of  inexhaustible  wealth;  beds  of  lead,  zinc  and  copper; 
mountains  of  iron;  coal  enough  to  supply  the  world;  and  above  all,  a  rich, 
deep  productive  soil  capable  of  producing,  with  little  labor,  more  of  those 
staple  articles  which  promote  the  subsistence  and  constitute  the  commerce 
of  the  world,  than  any  other  portion  of  the  earth.  Here — HERE,  upon 
these  mighty  plains,  agriculture  is  to  have  her  milleniuni  and  to  reap  har 
vests  such  as  the  word  never  saw  before. 

Now,  sir,  when  I  see  this  country,  when  I  see  its  vastness  and  its  almost 
illimitable  extent,  when  I  see  the  keen  eye  of  capital  and  business  fastened 
with  steady  interested  gaze  upon  the  trade  of  the  West,  and  all  our  Eastern 
cities  in  hot  rivalry  are  reaching  out  their  iron  arms  to  secure  our  trade; 
when  I  see  the  railroads  that  are  centring  here  in  St.  Louis,  when  I  see 
this  city  with  60,000  miles  of  railroad  communication  and  100,000  miles 
of  telegraphic  communication,  when  I  see  that  she  stands  at  the  head  wa 
ters  of  navigation,  extending  to  the  north  3,000  miles,  and  to  the  south 
2,000  miles,  and  when  I  see  that  she  stands  in  the  centre  of  the  continent 
as  it  were,  when  I  see  the  population  moving  to  the  West  in  vast  numbers, 
when  I  see  immigration  rolling  'toward  the  Pacific,  and  all  through  these 
temperate  climes  I  hear  the  tramp  of  the  iron  horse  on  his  way  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean;  when  I  see  towns  and  villages  springing  up  in  every  direc 
tion  ;  when  I  see  States  forming  into  existence,  until  the  city  of  St.  Louis 
becomes  the  centre  as  it  were  of  a  hundred  States,  the  centre  of  the  popu 
lation  and  the  commerce  of  this  country;  when  I  see  all  this,  sir,  I  feel 
convinced  that  the  seat  of  empire  is  to  come  this  side  of  the  Alleghanies; 
and  why  may  not  St.  Louis  be  the  future  capital  of  the  United  States  of 
America  ?  [Prolonged  applause.]  Why  may  not  Chicago  be  that  capital  ? 
[Applause.]  Why  may  not  Omaha  be  that  capital?  [Applause.]  Why 
may  not  Leavenworth  be  that  capital?  [Applause.] 

Already,  two  gigantic  railroad  enterprises  have  been  completed  to  the 
Missouri,  and  for  hundreds  of  miles  beyond;  already  the  locomotive  is 
on  the  sun-set  of  the  continent,  and  with  the  certainty  of  completion 
clear  on  and  on  to  the  golden  shores  of  the  Pacific;  and  here  we  are, 
half-way  stations,  to  find  a  market  for  our  produce  and  wares  upon  both 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific;  and  from  Europe  will  come  her  untold  millions 
.to  people  our  plains,  and  we  will  be  within  fifteen  days  travel  by  railroad 


15 

and  steamship  navigation  of  the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  6,000  years, 
and  of  the  six  hundred  million  people,  of  Asia  and  the  Indies.  [Ap 
plause.]  Now,  when  we  reflect  that,  as  the  Pacific  Railroad  moves  for 
ward  on  its  Western  way,  settlements  and  population  will  nestle  along  its 
track,  and  villages,  and  cities,  and  strong  and  powerful  States,  will  spring 
up,  and  the  preponderance  of  population,  the  numerical  strength  of  the 
nation,  shall  be  on  this  side  of  the  Alleghanies,  who  will  doubt  that  the 
Capitol  of  the  United  States  will  also  be  here?  [Applause.] 

We  have  a  new  agency  born  in  the  world.  It  is  not  now  the  fashion 
first  to  settle  a  country,  and  then  to  build  roads  to  it  and  through  it,  but. 
the  fashion  now  is,  to  build  the  roads  far  into  the  wilderness,  and  then 
draw  population  and  settlement  to  and  after  them.  In  war,  the  railroad 
is  our  cheapest  and  most  effectual  defence,  sending  her  locomotives  thun 
dering  across  our  mountains  and  prairies  to  the  relief  of  our  armies  and 
the  triumph  of  our  flag.  In  peace",  our  strongest  bond  of  union;, 
stronger  than  armies  or  navies,  or  all  the  constitutions  man  ever  formed. 
The  locomotive  is  the  new  pioneer  of  population  and  settlement.  The 
railroad  is  the  new  agent  of  civilization.  The  railroad  is  carrying  our  in 
stitutions  far  into  the  centre  of  the  West.  We  need  nobody  to  fight  the 
Indians,  when  the  whistle  of  the  locomotive  shall  frighten  the  wolf  and 
the  antelope  before  it. 

My  friend,  the  Chairman,  has  referred  briefly  to  the  history  of  railroads. 
I  do  not  chose  now  to  say  what  shall  be  the  policy  of  the  Government  of 
the  United  States;  I  will,  however,  say  what  has  been  its  policy. 
When  the  United  States  gave  a  grant  of  land  for  the  construction  of  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad,  reserving  every  alternate  section  to  the  Govern 
ment,  the  result  was,  the  doubling  in  price  of  that  alternate  section,  and 
the  Government  lost  nothing.  The  result  of  the  enterprise  was  this,  that 
the  Government  lands  were  sold  immediately,  almost  for  the  full  price 
that  the  Government  had  charged  originally  for  all  this  land;  and  they 
were  sold  within  a  much  less  time,  for  the  lands  had  already  been  on  the 
market  as  refused  lands,  and  they  would  not  have  been  sold  to-day,  but  for 
this  grant  in  behalf  of  this  railroad.  This  grant  was  made,  the  railroad 
built,  and  in  a  short  time  cities  and  villages  sprang  up  along  the  line  of 
this  railroad,  and  now  it  is  almost  one  continuous  farm  from  one  end  of 
the  railroad  to  the  other.  That  policy  on  the  part  of  this  Government 
should  be  continued.  We  should  not  hesitate  a  moment  in  the  policy  that 
should  be  adopted  by  the  Government,  and  that  policy  should  be,  to  press 
forward  these  railroads  immediately  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  [loud  applause] 
by  an  appropriation  from  the  Government,  if  it  is  necessary,  to  carry  this 
railroad  over  the  difficult  portions  of  its  course  to  the  Rocky  mountains. 


16 

And  this  Government,  now,  as  this  is  the  time  of  peace,  and  the  ener 
gies  of  the  nation  must  be  employed  in  some  way  in  the  place  of  war; 
now,  this  Government  should  turn  its  attention  to  the  great  importance 
of  the  improvement  of  our  rivers  and  our  harbors.  [Loud  applause]  We 
said  to  our  Southern  brethren,  in  the  beginning  of  the  war,  that  we  would 
never  give  up  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi;  that  sooner  than  do  this, 
that  stream  should  flow  with  the  commingled  blood  of  patriots  and  trait 
ors;  and  we  have  maintained  our  position.  We  have  carried  every  stong- 
hold,  and  our  flag  waves  as  proudly  at  New  Orleans  as  it  does  at  St  Louis 
to-day.  Now,  let  us  say  to  our  Southern  brethren — for  they  are  our 
Southern  brethren  now,  or  will  be,  very  soon — let  us  say  to  them  that  we 
will  do  everything  to  make  them  neighbors;  we  will  clean  out  your  rivers, 
repair  your  levees,  give  you  all  the  necessary  transit  for  a  market,  all 
the  necessary  market  facilities  for  your  sugar,  your  cotton,  and  other  pro 
ductions.  [Applause.]  I  agree  with  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  I  will  con 
clude  by  saying  that  I  expect,  in  a  short  time,  from  all  the  calculations 
which  have  been  made,  that  in  five  years  time  we  shall  have  a  continuous 
railroad  line  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  oceans.  [Loud  applause.]  I 
expect  then,  sir,  you  will  see,  in  the  same  cars,  traveling  through  the  city 
of  St.  Louis,  the  merchants  of  Canton  and  Pekin,  in  China,  and  of  San 
Francisco  and  New  York,  in  America,  and  of  London  and  Liverpool,  in 
England,  all  traveling  through  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  across  the  great  con 
tinental  thoroughfare  of  America.  [Applause.]  I  expect,  in  five  years 
from  now,  to  be  able  to  continue  my  journey  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  and  to 
reach  that  point  upon  the  Rocky  Mountains  which  Mr.  Benton  once  de 
signated  as  the  point  where  he  was  to  erect  the  statue  of  Columbus.  I 
expect  to  stand  at  the  foot  of  some  such  statue  as  that,  and,  as  I  look 
back  over  this  beautiful  land  in  the  East,  and  as  I  look  over  the  golden 
shores  of  the  Pacific  on  the  West,  and  as  I  look  on  the  cities,  and  towns, 
and  States  which  are  now  rising  into  existence,  and  which  are  to  consti 
tute  the  future  power  and  glory  of  the  country;  I  expect,  then,  from 
this  height,  to  be  able  to  exclaim  of  this  land,  this  glorious  land !  this 
land  of  a  hundred  States!  this  ocean-bound  Republic!  "How  beautiful 
are  thy  tents,  0  Israel!"  [Applause.] 

Mr.  Chairman,  in  behalf  of  Senator  Wade  and  of  the  party,  I  cannot 
close  without  referring  to  the  cordialities  that  have  been  extended  to  us. 
Our  party  will  not  soon  forget  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  for  the  hospitalities 
you  have  extended  to  them.  They  will  always  remember  Gen'l  Palmer, 
the  efficient  Treasurer  of  the  road,  for  his  kind  attentions,  and  for  the 
perfect  regularity  and  system  maintained  by  him  during  our  excursion. 
[Applause.]  I  will  not  refer  to  your  city,  so  often  described  as  one  of 


17 

the  great  emporiums  of  the  West;  I  will  not  attempt  to  depict  its  future 
destiny,  when,  as  it  were,  the  commerce  of  the  continent  shall  pour  into 
your  commission  houses,  after  the  construction  of  this  railroad;  but  I 
will  refer,  and  do  refer,  to  that  pleasure  which  has  been  excited  in  all  our 
bosoms,  to-day,  by  the  beautiful  scenes  which  surround  your  city.  Cer 
tainly,  none  more  beautiful  have  I  seen  anywhere,  in  the  East  or  the 
West.  And  to  the  Mayor,  City  Council  and  Merchants'  Exchange,  I  re 
turn,  for  Judge  Wade  and  for  myself,  leaving  my  brother  associates  to  re 
turn  their  own  thanks,  I  return  you  our  heartfelt  thanks  for  the  cordial 
hospitality  which  you  have  extended  to  us  on  this  occasion.  [Applause.] 

SPEECH  OF  SENATOR  CATTELL,  OF  NEW  JERSEY. 

MR.  PRESIDENT  : — It  strikes  me  there  is  something  a  little  out  of  place 
in  the  course  things  have  taken  this  evening  I  supposed  that  the  modest 
little  State  of  New  Jersey,  or  rather  the  humble  representative  of  that 
State,  would  not  be  called  upon  till  a  much  later  hour  in  the  evening  I 
presumed  that  these  grand  States  of  the  West,  so  ably  represented  here, 
Ohio,  Illinois,  Wisconsin  and  Michigan,  would  have  been  heard  from 
first,  and  that  they  would  have  been  followed  by  my  eloquent  friend  from 
Maryland;  I  am  therefore  quite  unprepared  for  your  unexpected  call,  for 
I  confidently  expected  to  catch  enough  inspiration  from  the  eloquence  of 
these  gentlemen,  as  they  traveled  along,  to  enable  me  to  speak  when  my 
time  should  come.  [Laughter  ] 

What,  therefore,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  to  be  done  in  such  a  crisis  as  this? 
There  is  nothing  left  me,  I  think,  sir,  but  simply  to  return  to  you,  and 
through  you  to  the  City  Council  and  Merchants'  Exchange,  and  to  the 
people  of  St.  Louis,  my  heartfelt  thanks  for  the  hospitality  and  kindness 
which  have  been  extended  to  the  party  of  which  I  am  a  member,  ever 
since  our  arrival  in  your  beautiful  and  flourishing  city. 

I  can  say,  with  my  friend  of  Illinois  (Senator  Yates)  that  this  is  my 
first  visit  to  the  great  West,  and  that  I  have  been  delighted,  nay  more, 
that  I  have  been  absolutely  bewildered,  by  the  grandeur  and  magnificence 
of  the  scenes  which  have  met  my  eye,  en  this  grand  excursion  along  the 
lines  of  the  two  Pacific  Railroads 

I  confess  that  I  have  been  both  delighted  and  instructed,  and  I  believe 
no  more  truthful  sentiment  could  have  fallen  from  the  lips  of  the  Senator 
from  Illinois  than  that  in  which  he  expressed  a  doubt  whether  he  or  any 
other  gentleman  is  fully  prepared  to  legislate  intelligently  for  this  nation 
without  first  having  seen  with  his  own  eyes  something  of  the  magnitude 
and  grandeur  of  the  country  which  is  unfolded  to  him  in  such  an  exten- 


18 

ded  trip  as  we  have  been  favored  with,  through  the  politeness  of  the  offi 
cers  of  the  Pacific  roads.  And,  therefore,  Mr.  Chairman,  Senator  Wade 
has  not  only,  in  the  language  of  our  traveling  companion,  Mr.  Train, 
"had  this  Senatorial  party  out,  teaching  them  geography,"  but  I  am  ab 
solutely  convinced  that  we  are  being  taught  how  to  legislate  in  view  of 
the  boundless  extent  of  our  territory,  its  limitless  resources,  and  the  in 
domitable  energy  of  our  people.  A  personal  observation  of  this  immense 
territory  through  which  we  have  traveled  cannot  but  impress  the  mind  of 
the  legislator  with  the  conviction  that  it  is  OK?'  interest  and  duty  to  bend 
the  energies  of  this  nation  to  the  completion  of  these  great  lines  of  railways, 
and  speed  the  iron  horse  in  his  chase  after  the  setting  sun,  until  his  on 
ward  course  is  arrested  by  the  waters  of  the  Pacific  ocean. 

Since  I  have  been  sitting  at  the  table,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  been  lis 
tening  to,  and  participating  somewhat  in,  the  discussion  between  my 
friends  opposite,  on  the  question,  How  are  we  to  pay  our  national  debt? 
Well,  sir,  the  answer  to  that  question  is,  It  can  easily  be  done,  without 
pressing  hard  upon  our  people,  simply  by  developing  the  limitless  resour 
ces  of  our  great  country,  and  especially  by  opening  up  our  rich  domain 
west  of  the  Missouri. 

I  remember  having  had,  during  the  war,  and  near  its  close,  a  discussion 
with  one  of  my  English  correspondents  in  regard  to  our  national  debt. 
He  seemed  alarmed  at  its  magnitude,  and  doubted  the  ability  of  a  new 
country  like  ours  to  stand  up  under  such  a  load.  I  endeavored,  in  good 
plain  honest  style,  to  convince  him  of  his  error,  by  telling  him  the  re 
sources  of  our  country,  and  assuring  him  that  a  debt  of  even  three  thou 
sand  millions  of  dollars,  for  such  a  country  as  ours,  and  especially  with 
such  a  people,  that  such  a  debt  was  of  far  less  consequence  to  us,  and  a 
far  lighter  burden,  than  the  four  thousand  millions  they  owed  themselves. 
Finally,  I  lost  patience,  and  closed  the  discussion  one  day  by  saying  to 
him: — "My  dear  sir,  permit  me  to  say,  in  just  one  sentence,  in  reply  to 
your  strictures  on  our  national  debt,  that  there  is  enough  of  value  in  the 
minerals  thnt  lie  buried  in  the  hills  and  mountains  of  America,  as  yet  un 
trodden  by  the  foot  of  civilized  man,  at  their  normal  value  in  the  ground 
(if  there  were  money  enough  in  the  world  to  buy  them),  not  only  to  pay 
the  three  thousand  millions  which  we  owe,  but  to  pay  your  little  debt  of 
four  thousand  millions,  and  have  enough  left  to  buy  and  pay  for  the  king 
dom  of  Great  Britain.  [Great  applause.]  And  I  have  been  disposed, 
in  the  course  of  the  journey  we  have  made,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  say  that 
there  is  not  only  mineral  wealth  lying  within  our  continent,  and  belonging 
to  us,  inviting  the  skill  of  the  miner  and  the  enterprise  of  the  capitalist, 
sufficient  to  make  the  payment  of  our  debt  secure,  but  that  there  is 


19 

latent  wealth  enough  in  those  beautiful,  broad  prairies,  which  have  never 
yet  been  turned  by  the  plow,  and  in  the  magnificent  hill-sides  and  val 
leys  which  lie  along  the  thousands  cf  miles  we  have  traveled,  to  assure 
the  most  skeptical  bond-holder  that  the  public  debt  of  the  United  States 
not  only  can  be  paid  but  will  be  paid,  to  the  uttermost  farthing.  [Ap 
plause.] 

What  we  need,  in  the  present  condition  of  affairs,  is  the  rapid  develop 
ment  of  these  great  resources; — -and  there  is  nothing  under  heaven  that 
will  do  so  much  toward  this  as  the  completion  of  these  two  great  lines  of 
railway  which  you  are  pushing  on  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  [Cheers.]  And 
I  am  free  to  say,  here,  to-night,  after  the  opportunities  which  have  been 
afforded  me  for  observation  on  both  these  lines  of  road,  that  the  Govern- 
msnt  has  acted  wisely  in  giving  a  helping  hand  to  these  great  enterprises; 
that  every  dollar  which  has  been  given,  or  rather  loaned,  to  aid  this  work, 
will  IJK  more  than  repaid  to  the  Government,  in  two  ways: — 1.  By  the 
great  saving  in  the  transportation  of  supplies  for  the  frontier  forts  and 
garrisons,  wagon  transportation  Icing  very  expensive;  and,  2.  By  finally 
enabling  you  to  abrogate  the  whole  line  of  posts  in  the  country  through 
which  the  roads  pass.  For  of  what  earthly  use  will  these  forts  be,  when 
you  have  railroads  running  through  the  heart  of  that  country,  carrying 
our  civilization,  and  dotting  its  whole  line  with  the  homes  of  the  hardy 
pioneers,  and  laying  the  foundation  of  villages,  towns  and  cities. 

As  a  national  question,  in  its  direct  relation  to  the  Government,  every 
dollar  that  has  been  given  in  aid  of  this  enterprise  has  been  wisely 
bestowed,  and  will  be  amply  repaid.  But,  more  than  this,  the  nation  will 
gain  immensely  by  the  development  of  the  resources  of  the  mighty  West. 
These  roads  will  open  up  the  vast  domain  which  belongs  to  us,  inviting 
not  only  the  enterprise  of  our  own  people  to  its  fertile  acres,  but  enabling 
us  to  spread  out  our  hands  to  the  whole  earth,  and  say  to  the  oppressed  of 
all  lands,  "Come,  there  is  room  enough,  and  to  spare!" 

Who  can  estimate  the  increase  of  our  national  wealth,  when  the  min 
eral  and  agricultural  resources  of  this  vast  region  shall  come  to  be  devel 
oped,  and  when  the  commerce  of  the  Indies  shall  find  its  way  to  the  na 
tions  of  Europe  across  our  continent? 

Mr.  Chairman,  without  trespassing  further  upon  your  indulgence,  I 
close  by  saying,  God  speed  both  lines  of  the  Pacific  Railroad,  and  give 
prosperity  to  your  great  city ! 

SPEECH  OF  SENATOR  CHANDLER,  OF  MICHIGAN. 

MR.  PRESIDENT: — Twenty-seven  years  ago  I  was  seeking  a  location  in 


20 

the  far  West.  Detroit  was  beginning  to  be  rather  of  an  eastern  city.  I 
was  looking  for  something  farther  West.  I  did  not  like  Chicago,  and  I 
took  another  stage  coach  and  traveled  over  the  prairies  some  120  miles, 
and  continued  along  the  Illinois  river,  and  at  last  came  down  to  a  little 
city  by  the  name  of  St.  Louis,  situated  upon  the  Mississippi  river,  a  few 
miles  below  the  junction  of  the  Missouri  river.  St.  Louis  then  possessed 
a  population,  I  believe,  of  about  16,000  inhabitants;  but  real  estate  was 
then  so  very  high  here  in  St.  Louis,  that  the  old  and  judicious  men  ad 
vised  that  no  investment  should  be  made  at  that  time.  They  were  feeding 
cattle  up  here  on  Fourth  street,  about  where  this  hotel  now  stands,  and 
I  suppose  it  would  have  cost  one  hundred  dollars  per  acre,  to  have  bought 
land  here  at  that  time.  But  real  estate  was  too  high  to  make  an  invest 
ment  at  that  time.  That  was  in  the  year  1840.  Mr.  Chairman,  at  that 
time  it  took  about  two  weeks  to  come  from  Detroit  to  St.  Louis;  by  the 
shortest  practicable  route,  from  eight  to  fourteen  days — depending  on  the 
state  of  the  roads  and  the  stage  of  water  in  the  rivers.  Since  that  time, 
Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  seen  these  three  cities,  Detroit,  Chicago,  and  St. 
Louis  increase  somewhat  in  population,  somewhat  in  their  business,  and 
somewhat  in  their  hopes  and  prospects.  Detroit  was  the  oldest  of  the 
three,  and,  perhaps,  at  that  time,  the  most  pretentious.  But  having  a  very 
modest  population  in  the  State  of  Michigan,  and  recognizing  the  extraor 
dinary  speed  of  our  neighbors,  and  the  fast  time  they  have  made,  and 
that  they  propose  to  make,  we  have  rather  retired  and  make  no  preten 
sions  in  the  future. 

Now,  Mr.  President,  I  can  start  from  Detroit  and  reach  St.  Louis  in 
twenty-four  hours,  and  now  instead  of  passing  through  a  small  village, 
containing  two  or  three  thousand  people,  I  pass  through  a  city  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty,  two  hundred  or  three  hundred  thousand  inhabitants — 
I  don't  know  which.  [Laughter.]  The  last  time  I  inquired  I  forget  how 
many  there  were.  I  arrive  here  in  St.  Louis  and  find  that  it  is  not  gener 
ally  known  how  many  hundred  thousand  there  are.  I  inquired  what  the 
population  was,  yesterday,  and  they  told  me  it  was  two  hundred  and  fifty 
or  three  hundred  thousand.  I  asked  again  to-day,  and  they  said  the  in 
crease  was  so  rapid  that  they  couldn't  tell,  but  they  thought  it  was  about 
five  hundred  thousand.  [Great  applause.] 

Well,  Mr.  President,  there  has  been  a  great  talk  about  rivalry  between 
these  great  cities  of  the  West.  You  need  but  to  travel  as  I  have,  during 
the  past  two  or  three  weeks,  to  hoot  at  the  idea  of  rivalry  between  any  of 
these  cities.  Why,  sir,  I  traveled  through  the  parallel  directly  west  of 
this  city,  400  miles,  perhaps  500  miles,  through  Missouri  and  through 
Kansas,  and  I  see  a  country  there,  sir,  out  of  which  they  might  make 


21 

three  empires  in  Germany,  and  a  great  empire  anywhere  else  on  the  face 
of  the  earth.  [Applause.]  Why,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  believe  that  this  State 
of  Missouri  alone,  is  competent  to-day  to  feed  the  whole  population  of  the 
earth,  if  the  lands  were  all  cultivated.  Rivalry,  sir,  between  St.  Louis 
and  Chicago?  It  is  an  absurdity!  It  is  simply  ridiculous.  Why,  sir, 
the  land  lying  West  of  St.  Louis  and  Chicago  is  capable  of  sustaining  ten 
cities  ten  times  larger  than  Chicago  and  St.  Louis  both  are  to-day,  or  will 
be  fifty  years  hence.  Then,  sir,  with  regard  to  these  great  veins  of  traffic 
and  trade,  your  railroads.  It  is  a  well  established  fact,  that  a  railroad 
through  such  a  country  as  this  will  pay,  on  a  parallel  on  each  and  every 
degree;  you  may  build  a  railroad,  sir,  through  the  paralled  of  39,  and  in 
five  years  the  increase  on  that  parallel  will  sustain  that  railroad  and  make 
your  stock  profitable;  and  so  you  may  go  on.  Any  parallel  in  this  beau 
tiful  and  magnificent  country  will  sustain  your  railroad,  and  that  within 
ten  or  fifteen  years  from  the  date  when  you  build  the  road,  and  in  most 
cases  from  the  date  when  it  is  built. 

Mr.  President,  I  have  read  most  of  the  works  that  have  been  written 
about  this  Western  country,  but  I  never  crossed  the  Mississippi  river  but 
once.  I  never  traveled  into  the  interior  of  this  country  but  once,  and 
that  was  in  the  fall  of  1861.  I  thought  I  understood  the  resources  of 
this  country  west  of  the  Mississippi,  but,  Mr.  President,  this  whole  jour 
ney  has  been  to  me  a  continual  astonishment.  I  traveled  for  the  first  time 
through  the  State  of  Iowa,  and  I  found  such  a  State  as  no  writing  can 
describe. 

Mr.  President,  if  I  had  my  way,  I  would  take  these  Eastern  members 
of  Congress,  Senators  and  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and 
I  would  treat  them  as  you  in  your  early  residence  in  this  city  of  St.  Louis 
used  to  treat  the  Indian  tribes.  You,  sir,  after  making  a  treaty  with 
these  wild  Indians,  used  to  send  Mr.  Chouteau,  or  some  other  Indian 
trader,  to  talk  with  the  principal  Chiefs  of  the  principal  tribes,  and  show 
them  the  forts  and  the  arsenals,  and  show  them  your  cities  and  towns,  and 
show  them  your  immense  population,  to  satisfy  them,  that  there  was  no  use 
for  them  in  contending  against  this  great  Government  of  the  United 
States.  Sir,  I  would  take  these  Yankees  and  I  would  trot  them  over  your 
prairies,  and  through  your  great  cities  [applause],  and  I  would  show  them 
something  away  off  beyond  what  their  imagination  reaches — too  vast  for 
their  comprehension,  except  by  personal  examination. 

Mr.  President,  we  have  passed  through  such  a  conflict  as  the  world 
never  saw  before,  and  I  suppose  it  was  nescessary  for  us  to  pass  through 
that  conflict.  I  believe,  sir,  that  God  Almighty  intended  that  this  nation, 
this  continent,  and  this  identical  people — I  believe,  sir,  in  the  wisdom  of 


Omnipotence,  that  this  Government  was  preserved  to  demonstrate  the 
problem  now  being  wrought — ihe  capability  of  man  for  self-government. 
The  late  war  was  not  a  war  between  the  North  and  South.  That  was  not 
the  issue  to  be  settled  in  this  terrible  war  that  has  taken  place  daring  the 
last  seven  years.  We  were  to  decide  whether  man  was  capable  of  self- 
government — whether  man  could  govern  himself  or  was  a  thing  to  be 
governed;  whether  he  was  born  to  rule  or  to  be  ruled.  That  was  the 
issue,  and  that  has  been  settled,  and  the  problem  has  been  wrought  out. 

Mr.  President,  during  this  great  rebellion,  during  this  war,  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  had  no  friends  among  the  governments  of 
the  earth — saving  and  excepting  only  the  little  Republic  of  Switzerland, 
and  there  was  not  a  government  on  the  face  of  the  earth  that  did  not 
desire  our  overthrow.  We  had,  it  is  true,  the  good  wishes  of  Russia — 
and  why?  Russia  was  fearing  a  war  with  the  Eastern  powers  of  Europe, 
and  it  was  very  well  for  Russia  to  make  a  flank  movement,  by  a  sort  of 
friendship  with  the  United  States,  but  there  was  no  cordial  sympathy 
between  the  Government  of  Russia  and  the  Republic  of  the  United  States. 
I  say  sir,  during  that  fearful  struggle  we  had  no  friend  among  the  govern 
ments  of  the  earth  when  we  needed  friends.  To-day  we  have  no  enemies 
among  the  governments  of  the  earth.  They  were  not  our  friends  when 
we  needed  friends.  They  dare  not  be  our  enemies  when  we  do  not  require 
their  friendship.  [Applause.] 

Mr.  President,  a  nation  that  has  put  two  millions  of  armed  men  in  the 
field,  and  maintained  them  there  four  years;  a  nation  that  has  put  the 
largest  and  most  formidable  navy  afloat,  within  the  short  space  of  four 
years,  that  the  world  has  ever  saen,  is  it  not  a  nation  to  be  at  enmity  with. 
In  our  trouble  and  during  our  tribulation,  nations  dared  to  defy  u:i. 
France  dared  to  send  her  troops  into  Mexico,  to  establish  an  empire  there. 
Mr.  President,  this  country  is  not  large  enough  for  an  empire  there. 
[Cheers.]  There  ain't  land  enough  on  the  continent  of  North  America  to 
hold  an  empire.  After  our  difficulties  were  settled,  after  we  had  got  through 
with  our  little  family  quarrel,  we  notified  Louis  Napoleon  tli.it  the  empire 
would  be  unhealthy  for  the  soldiers  of  an  empire,  and,  sir,  he  believed 
that  it  would  be  unhealthy,  and  he  took  away  his  soldiers,  and  his  empire 
too.  Well,  sir,  during  our  troubles  and  our  weakness,  Great  Britain  saw 
fit  to  not  only  insult  and  injure  us,  but  Great  Britain  dared,  sir,  to  send 
her  privateers  abroad  to  burn  our  peaceful  commerce.  Three  years  ago, 
sir,  I  offered  a  resolution  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  instructing 
our  Secretary  of  State  to  make  out  a  bill  for  damages,  and  to  present  it 
to  Great  Britain  and  ask  her  to  pay  it.  Well,  sir,  the  Secretary  of  State 
made  out  the  bill,  according  to  the  request,  and  with  his  hat  in  his  hand 


23 

and  on  his  knees,  he  approached  the  British  Premier  and  said:  "My  dear 
sir,  will  you  pardon,  me?  but  I  would  like  for  you  to  look  at  that  bill  and 
to  have  it  paid."  Well,  the  British  Premier  said,  "I  won't — I  won't 
look  at  that  bill,  nor  will  I  refer  it  to  anybody/'  and  we  were  turned  out 
of  court.  Well,  sir,  since  that  time  Great  Britain  has  been  very  anxious 
to  have  the  bill  examined,  and  within  the  last  few  months  she  has  in 
formed  the  Secretary  of  State  that  she  would  be  willing  to  arbitrate. 

Mr.  President,  when  I  offered  that  resolution,  this  Government  was 
spending  money  at  the  rate  of  $1,000,000,000  a  year,  arid  a  little  matter 
of  thirty  or  forty  millions  of  dollars  was  then  of  great  importance  to  us. 
Since  that  time  we  have  been  paying  off  our  national  debt  at  the  rate  of 
one  to  three  hundred  millions  of  dollars  a  year,  and  we  can  wait  now.  I 
am  not  in  as  great  a  hurry  now  as  I  was  then.  I  am  willing,  sir,  to  wait 
until  England  gets  ready  to  pay.  I  am  not  willing  to  arbitrate  with  any 
body.  Mr.  President,  that  bill  must  be  paid,  with  interest  from  its  date, 
and  there  is  no  discount  upon  it.  [Applause.]  And,  sir,  I  am  disposed 
to  be  liberal  with  Great  Britain.  She  is  a  very  old  power,  and  she  is  a 
very  feeble  power  now.  She  has  ceased  to  command  the  repect  of  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  When  the  German  question  was  being  settled,  was 
Great  Britain  invited  in  to  consult  or  advise,  or  help  arbitrate?  Not  at 
all,  sir.  She  was  left  out.  We  must  be  kind  to  Great  Britain,  and  I,  sir, 
am  willing  to  wait  till  she  gets  able  to  pay  5  and  what  is  more,  Mr.  Presi 
dent,  I  am  willing  to  take  collateral  security.  Great  Britain  owns  a  little 
land  up  north  of  us,  and  T,  sir,  am  willing  to  consider  this  a  first  mortgage 
on  the  little  debt  that  Great  Britain  owes  us.  I  do  not  want  it  paid.  I 
do  not  want  it  arbitrated.  I  want  to  let  it  rest  till  the  time  comes  to 
foreclose  that  mortgage.  There  was  an  iceberg  up  north  that  we  bought 
the  other  day.  It  is  a  great  territory,  they  tell  me.  I  don't  know  what 
they  raise  up  there,  nor  I  don't  care  much.  It  is  a  part  of  this  continent, 
and  we  want,  it.  [Cheers.]  And,  therefore,  sir,  I  voted  for  the  treaty 
that  acquired  it.  I  don't  know,  as  I  said  before,  what  they  raise.  I  am 
told  that  it  is  a  great  country  for  walruses,  sea-horses  and  whales  [laugh 
ter],  and  that  it  has  some  ice;  but  no  matter,  it  is  a  part  of  this  continent 
of  North  America,  and  we  want  the  whole  of  it,  and  we  will  have  no  co 
partnerships.  [Laughter.]  And  as  we  have  allied  with  Russia,  I  prefer 
to  pay  a  small  sum  to  Russia,  and  take  possession  of  what  little  land  she 
owns  there.  The  day  after  that  treaty  was  signed,  on  the  4th  of  March, 
I  met  Mr.  Seward,  and  he  said : 

"What  do  you  think  of  the  treaty?" 

Said  T,  "What  is  the  land  good  for?" 

Says  he,  "It's  fisheries  are  splendid,  and  there  is  a  good  deal  of  min 
eral  wealth." 


Said  I,  "Can  you  get  a  farm  out  of  it?" 

Said  he,  "I  don't  know,  but  it  is  worth  more  than  we  paid  for  it,  a 
great  deal  more. " 

Said  I,  "Governor,  I  am  rather  disposed  to  vote  for  your  treaty,  but 
when  we  settle  with  Great  Britain,  not  one  single  dollar  will  I  vote  to  pay 
her  for  her  North  American  section.  Not  one  dollar. "  I  will  let  that 
mortgage  stand,  let  the  Alabama  claims  remain,  and  when  the  proper 
time  arrives — it  has  not  arrived  yet,  and  I  am  in  no  hurry;  we  can  wait 
one  year,  two  years  or  five  years,  it  is  a  mere  question  of  time — but, 
Mr.  President,  when  the  proper  time  arrives,  we  will  foreclose  that 
little  mortgage  on  Great  Britain  and  take  the  small  territory  that  lies 
north  of  us.  This  North  American  continent  belongs  to  us,  and  ours  it 
must  be.  Why,  sir,  no  nation  will  go  to  war  with  us  for  any  strip  of 
land  upon  this  continent.  Mr.  President,  I  have  occupied  your  time  too 
long.  I  simply  wish  to  thank  you,  and  the  citizens  of  St.  Louis,  and  the 
Railroad  Companies,  whose  guests  we  have  been,  for  the  courtesy  and 
kindness,  and  the  abundant  hospitality  that  has  been  extended  to  us, 
and  again  to  assure  you  that  there  is  no  cause  for  rivalry  between  any 
of  the  cities  of  the  Northwest,  but  that  you  all  have  room  to  grow  and 
expand,  and  become  Londons,  if  you  please. 

SPEECH  OF  SENATOR  TRUMBULL,  OF  ILLINOIS. 

MR.  PRESIDENT  : — Illinois  being  a  modest  State,  and  not  making  much 
pretension,  as  you  know,  I  did  not  suppose  she  would  be  called  upon 
after  the  eloquent  remarks  of  my  colleague;  but  I  shall  detain  you  but  a 
moment,  confining  myself  chiefly  to  this  railroad  enterprise,  and  what  I 
suppose  ought  to  be  the  policy  of  the  Government  in  regard  to  these 
great  national  works.  Within  the  last  three  weeks  we  have  passed 
through  the  great  States  of  Illinois,  Iowa,  Nebraska,  Kansas  and  Mis 
souri — five  States  covering  more  territory  twice  over  than  the  whole 
empire  of  France,  and  I  think  I  may  say  a  more  fertile  country,  and  one 
capable  of  sustaining  a  greater  population.  Some  gentlemen  who  have 
spoken  to  you  to-night,  have  told  you  we  are  to  have  a  London  here.  I 
will  not  be  so  extravagant  as  some  of  my  enthusiastic  friends,  but  is  it 
reasonable,  fellow-citizens,  to  believe  that  a  country  twice  the  extent  of 
France,  in  the  heart  of  this  continent,  with  this  great  river  running 
through  it,  will  not  be  able  to  sustain  a  population  as  great  as  France? 
We  have  all  been  astonished  at  the  progress  of  this  Western  country.  It 
is  within  my  recollection,  and  you  all  see  that  I  am  still  a  young  man,  yet 
it  is  within  my  recollection,  that  all  the  railroads  of  this  country  have 


25 

been  constructed.  It  is  within  my  memory  when  there  was  not  a  railroad 
in  the  United  States,  and  it  is  but  a  few  years  since  we  had  a  struggle, 
across  the  river,  in  reference  to  one  railroad  across  the  State  of  Illinois. 
Now,  we  have  so  many  that  I  would  have  to  stop  to  count,  to  state  the 
number,  and  we  will  have  these  railroads  to  the  Pacific — not  one,  two  or 
three,  but  we  shall  have  a  northern  route,  a  central  route,  this  route  from 
St.  Louis,  and  one  still  further  South,  and,  perhaps,  half  a  dozen  more 
within  the  same  period  within  which  the  other  roads  have  been  built. 
And  if  I  ever  had  a  doubt  as  to  the  propriety  of  fostering  these  railroads 
by  the  Federal  Government,  it  would  have  been  removed  during  the  trip 
over  these  railroads.  [Applause.]  My  object  in  coming  upon  this  expe 
dition,  was,  not  merely  one  of  curiosity,  but  I  wanted  to  see  the  Western 
country;  and  although  a  Western  man  for  the  most  of  my  life — and  I 
have  passed  a  good  portion  of  it  almost  within  a  stone's  throw  of  your 
city — I  had  never  traversed  these  Western  plains  until  upon  this  excur 
sion.  I  had  heard  of  an  American  desert  in  the  West,  and  I  confess  that 
I  believed  there  was  a  region  of  country  somewhere  West  on  these  plains, 
which  could  not  be  profitably  cultivated;  but  I  am  satisfied  that  this  is  a 
mistake.  This  portion  which  we  supposed  was  of  no -value,  and  never 
could  be  inhabited,  contains,  as  we  have  learned  within  a  few  years, 
untold  treasures  in  the  way  of  minerals.  These  plains,  that  it  was  said 
were  a  desert,  when  we  came  to  traverse  them,  we  found  to  be  all  of  the 
same  character  as  our  Illinois  prairies;  and  when  I  speak  of  any  country 
as  equal  to  the  prairies  of  Illinois,  I  speak  of  the  best  country  on  which 
the  sun  shines.  [Applause.]  Now,  my  friends,  these  railroads  are  to  be 
built.  How  much  the  Government  can  do,  or  ought  to  do,  in  aiding 
them,  is  the  question.  It  ought  to  do  all  that  it  reasonably  can. 

The  Government  has  its  lands  along  the  line  of  these  roads,  and  it 
ought  to  give  liberally,  and  such  has  been  its  policy  for  years.  No  very 
large  subsidies  may  be  required  of  the  Government.  I  hope  that  the 
capital  and  the  enterprising  men  of  the  country  will  take  hold  of  these 
roads  and  complete  them,  and  I  think  they  will  find  their  reward  in  the 
return  of  profits  from  the  business  done  on  the  road.  But  the  Govern 
ment  has  always  manifested  a  great  interest  in  these  roads,  and  in  all 
these  works.  The  completion  of  these  roads  will  reduce  very  largely  our 
expenses  in  the  transportation  of  army  supplies  and  munitions  of  war,  for 
we  are  now  threatened  with  an  Indian  war,  and  there  is,  in  my  judgment, 
great  danger  of  a  general  war  with  the  Indians,  growing  out  of  the  ad 
vances  of  the  whites  upon  their  hunting  grounds.  As  these  inroads  are 
made  upon  the  hunting  grounds  of  the  Indians,  they  will  be  left  to  starve 
or  to  gather  into  predatory  bands,  such  as  are  now  roving  through  that 


26 

western  country  in  small  bodies.  I  think  there  is,  at  this  time,  no  large 
organized  body  of  hostile  Indians  anywhere;  and  I  found  the  farther 
west  we  went,  the  nearer  we  approached  to  the  Indians,  and  accounts  of 
hostilities  and  depredations  by  the  Indians  came  to  us.  A  few  murders 
had  been  committed  by  a  very  few  Indians — perhaps  not  more  than  half 
a  dozen  in  number.  These  murders  appeared  to  have  been  committed  in 
the  attempt  to  drive  off  stock;  and  in  accomplishing  that  object  when  it 
was  necessary,  and,  perhaps,  sometimes,  when  it  was  not  necessary,  they 
have  murdered  a  few  persons  when  they  had  it  in  their  power.  If  we  could 
have  upon  the  western  frontier,  at  this  time,  a  strong  force  of  cavalry — 
which  I  trust  General  Sherman,  who  traveled  with  us  over  the  road  from 
Omaha  west,  will  forward  to  General  Hancock — with  this  force  of  cavalry 
I  think  he  would  be  able  to  restrain  these  Indians  and  prevent  a  war, 
which,  if  brought  on,  will  cost  more  than  the  money  that  it  would  require 
to  build  these  roads.  If  we  are  to  have  a  war  with  the  Indians,  the  Gov 
ernment  is  interested  in  the  success  of  these  roads.  If  we  are  not  to  have  a 
warj  the  Government  is  equally  interested,  became  then,  by  the  building  of 
these  roads,  it  will  be  relieved  of  the  necessity  of  maintaining  forts.  It 
will  relieve  us  of  the  vast  expense  in  carrying  our  mails  through  to  the 
Pacific  coast  The  expense  of  transportation  which  the  Government  is  di 
rectly  interested  in,  will  be  greatly  reduced.  Therefore,  in  fostering  these 
railroads,  the  Government  will  be  greatly  benefited.  As  I  have  said  to 
you  before,  these  five  States  are  capable  of  sustaining  a  population  equal 
to  the  population  to-day  in  the  empire  of  France.  We  have  been  all 
astonished  at  the  progress  of  this  country.  Why,  I  have  ridden  over  the 
prairies  of  Illinois  year  after  year,  practising  at  law,  where  it  was  said 
that  the  land  never  could  be  made  profitable,  and  you  could  ride  a  whole 
day  without  seeing  more  than  two  houses,  and  where  it  was  said  that  there 
was  no  timber.  Well,  how  is  it  now?  These  prairies  are  covered  with 
farms,  and  land  that  could  be  bought  at  $1.25  per  acre,  cannot  now  be 
bought  at  $25  to  $100  an  acre.  These  plains,  where  the  buffaloes  have 
lived  and  grown  fat,  cattle  can  live  on  also.  The  ingenuity  of  our  people 
will  reduce  and  cultivate  all  these  plains  whose  population  will  speedily 
spread  across  the  mountains  to  the  Pacific  coast.  These  railroads  are  to 
span  the  mountains  in  a  very  few  years,  and  the  magnificence  of  this 
country  no  man  can  fully  realize.  I  will  not  undertake  to  say  what  it 
will  be.  We  have  all  been  astonished  at  what  we  have  seen,  and  doubt 
less  those  who  are  to  follow  after  me  will  be  as  much  astonished  as  we 
have  been.  We  have  lived  in  extraordinary  times — the  most  extraordi 
nary  the  world  has  ever  seen.  The  great  war  is  over.  The  great  evil  in 
our  system  of  government  has  been  wiped  away  forever.  I  shall  not  take 


27 

up  your  time  tonight  by  discussing  political  questions  or  obtruding  upon 
the  assembly  partisan  views,  but  we  all  agree,  now,  that  that  institution, 
which  put  at  hazard  the  peace  of  this  country,  and  came  nigh  destroying- 
it,  is  destroyed  forever. 

Peace  has  come  upon  our  country  once  more.  That  portion  of  it  which 
was  in  hostility  to  the  Government  is  being  reorganized,  and  I  trust  it 
will  be  speedily  accomplished.  This  organization  I  want  to  see  at  an  early 
day — at  the  earliest  practical  moment  that  it  can  be  done  with  safety  to 
the  Union.  I  want  it  done  by  putting  the  power  into  the  hands  of  men 
true  to  the  Union.  I  want  also  all  these  States  restored  to  their  former 
position.  I  want  to  see  trade  and  commerce  opened  with  the  South. 
This  city  wants  to  see  it,  the  whole  nation  wants  to  see  it.  Let  the  en. 
ergy  of  this  country,  which  astonished  the  world  when  engaged  in  war, 
be  now  turned  to  improvements  in  time  of  peace,  and  to  the  developing 
of  the  great  resources  of  this  nation.  (Cheers.) 

I  feel,  fellow-citizens,  that  it  would  be  unjust  to  you  to  detain  you  in 
discussing  these  questions.  There  are  other  gentlemen  here,  from  other 
States  more  remote,  whom  I  know  you  would  prefer  to  hear,  I  shall  there 
fore  thank  you,  gentlemen  of  these  railroads,  both  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad,  Eastern  Division,  and  the  Pacific  Road  from  Omaha,  for  the 
opportunities  they  have  afforded  me  to  see  this  country,  for  their  courtesy 
and  kindness,  and  their  liberality,  for  their  provision  for  all  our  wants 
and  comforts. 

SPEECH    OP    HON.  JOHN    COVODE,  OF    PENNSYLVANIA. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: — It  is  too  late  for  me  to 
make  a  speech,  to-night,  and  after  having  listened  to  those  able  Senators, 
and  desirous  as  you  are,  no  doubt,  to  hear  from  other  distinguished  mem 
bers  of  the  Senate  here,  I  will  not  detain  you  long;  but,  as  my  friend 
from  Michigan  (Mr.  Chandler)  was  calling  your  attention  to  his  first  visit 
to  St.  Louis,  I  think  I  had  better  date  a  little  farther  back,  and  give  you 
my  first  visit  here.  I  came  here  in  April,  1839,  over  twenty-eight  years 
ago,  when  St.  Louis  only  extended  to  Fourth  Street,  or,  if  it  did  extend 
further,  it  was  of  very  little  consequence  beyond  that.  I  was  at  the  bank 
of  the  river,  when  a  man  who  had  been  murdered  in  a  house  near  by  was 
being  dragged  down  to  the  river,  to  be  thrown  in.  Next  morning,  I  saw 
two  parties  go  over  the  river  to  fight  a  duel,  which  was  Sunday  morning 
at  that,  and  the  same  evening,  nearly  the  whole  city  was  out  to  see  a 
horse  race.  I  was  then  on  my  way  to  the  upper  Mississippi,  and  went  up 
on  the  first  boat  that  summer,  in  company  with  Col.  Davenport,  (who  was 


28 

murdered  the  4th  day  of  July  of  the  next  year),  to  locate  a  proper  place 
for  a  railroad  to  cross  the  Mississippi  river.  I  selected  Davenport  as  the 
place,  and  the  cars  are  passing  over  there  now.  Ten  years  ago,  I  returned 
to  the  Mississippi  valley,  as  I  have  come  out  every  few  years,  to  spread 
out  my  comprehension.  If  I  am  at  home,  my  notions  become  contracted, 
and  I  cannot  believe  this  country  is  as  large  as  it  really  is;  so  I  have  to 
come  out  and  see  it  again.  Ten  years  ago,  I  came  out  with  a  party  to  ex 
amine  the  Platte  Valley,  in  view  of  having  the  Eastern  railroads  concen 
trated  at  some  point  preparatory  to  crossing  the  Rocky  Mountains,  having 
had  a  promise  from  members  of  Congress  from  the  South,  that  they  would 
give  us  a  land  grant,  to  commence  the  construction  of  these  roads,  if  we 
had  territorial  organization  in  Nebraska. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  party  that  went  up  to  examine  that  country  was 
furnished  with  transportation  by  you,  free  of  charge,  over  the  railroad 
and  upper  Missouri,  and  accompanied  part  of  the  way  by  you.  We  ex 
amined  the  Platte  Valley.  We  crossed  the  country  to  the  Republican, 
came  down  the  valley  of  the  Kaw  to  its  mouth,  through  the  very  country 
— on  the  very  line,  that  we  have  been  travelling  on  to-day.  I  was  among 
the  first  engaged  in  this  business,  now  in  the  hands  of  enterprising  capi 
talists,  who  need  my  assistance  no  more.  I  have  aided  it  in  every  possi 
ble  way.  I  am  not  confined  to  one  road.  I  believe  that  the  Kansas  road 
has  as  good  a  right  to  the  aid  of  the  Government  as  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad.  I  go  for  both.  I  believe  that  Kansas  and  Nebraska  have 
just  as  good  a  claim,  and  as  much  need,  for  railroads,  as  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania  have. 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  will  give  a  reason  that  I  have,  for  furthering  your 
route,  or  insisting  that  it  should  go  on,  and  go  rapidly.  The  valley  of  the 
Platte  is  the  best  territory  I  have  seen,  or,  as  I  believe,  that  is  to  be  found 
on  the  continent,  to  lay  down  a  railroad  track  in.  The  valley  of  the 
Kansas  is  also  favorable,  but  the  road  bed  is  made  at  a  greater  expense. 
The  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  up  the  Platte  Valley,  will  be  obstructed  in 
the  winter,  a  portion  of  the  time,  with  snow.  Last  winter  the  route  was 
impassable  for  some  time,  on  account  of  the  snow.  We  will  have  to  contend 
with  the  snow  on  the  summit  of  the  mountains  also.  Bridger's  Pass  is 
liable  to  be  snowed  up  for  many  months.  This  road  has  been  built  up  the 
valley  to  lead  farther  South,  and  to  build  up  the  trade  of  Santa  Fe,  crosses 
the  mountains  at  a  lower  summit,  and  thereby  avoids  many  of  the  difficulties 
that  they  had  been  contending  with  last  winter;  and  I  tell  you,  gentle 
men,  to-night,  that  it  is  the  interest  of  the  Platte  Valley,  or  the  Union 
Pacific  road  that  this  road  should  be  built  also.  There  should  be  no 
rivalries  or  competition  with  one  another.  We  want  to  make  a  great 


29 

thoroughfare  across  the  continent.  Suppose  that  two  hundred  millions  of 
people  in  Europe,  and  six  hundred  millions  in  Asia,  with  whom  we  expect 
to  trade  across  our  continent,  get  to  understand  that  we  are  blockaded 
with  snow  for  three  months  of  the  year,  can  we  secure  their  commerce  ? 
They  will  hesitate  to  put  their  commerce  on  a  line,  which  is  liable  to  be 
so  obstructed.  But  suppose  we  have  a  road  that  will  be  in  running  order 
every  day  of  the  year,  we  may  then  reasonably  expect  to  realize  the  grand 
idea  of  securing  the  commerce  of  Asia  and  Europe  across  our  continent, 
Therefore,  gentlemen,  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  will  be  benefited  instead 
of  disadvantaged  by  the  security  given  to  the  world  that  we  have  a  road 
that  will  not  be  obstructed  with  snow.  Gentlemen,  I  cannot  detain  you 
long  on  this  question.  I  am  in  favor  of  aiding  both  roads  in  their  purpose 
of  completing  them  in  the  shortest  possible  time.  Why,  along  the  valley  of 
the  Platte,  I  have  seen  three  forts  blotted  out  already.  Forts  Kearney, 
Sedgwick,  and  McPherson,  are  all  superseded  by  the  building  of  the 
Platte  Valley  road  and  the  establishment  of  a  station  at  the  North 
Platte.  This  road  has  developed  a  population  that  has  utilized  the  In 
dian  as  far  as  that  is  concerned.  In  the  Kansas  valley  I  saw  Fort  Riley, 
a  beautiful,  well  laid  out,  well  built  military  post,  standing  on  the  moun 
tains  to  protect  the  frontier.  There  is  now  no  necessity  for  it.  No  use 
in  sending  troops  there.  Junction  City  has  sprung  up  in  sight  of  it  and 
seems  to  laugh  at  the  now  useless,  but  costly  works.  The  forts  are  no 
longer  necessary,  and  there  is  where  the  Government  has  a  great  and  para 
mount  interest  in  the  construction  of  these  roads,  that  will  settle  the 
Indian  question  for  all  future  time,  and  that,  too,  without  expense  to  the 
Government.  Many  think  the  Government  has  made  large  donations  to 
these  Companies,  but,  gentlemen,  the  Government  is  getting  its  money 
back  again  in  advance  of  the  time  at  which  the  interest  is  due.  They 
have  done  it  on  both  these  roads.  A  word  more  to  you,  gentlemen,  in 
regard  to  your  home  interest.  This  subject  has  been  pretty  well  discussed 
to-night,  but  after  all,  this  broad  country  is  only  one  story  high  out  here. 
In  Pennsylvania,  our  country  is  two  or  three  stories.  We  have  one  man 
or  a  family  with  a  hundred  acres,  and  five  hundred  men  on  the  lower 
strata  after  minerals.  You  have  minerals  in  Missouri,  enough  to  double 
the  population  of  St.  Louis  in  five  years,  and  enough  to  double  the  value 
of  every  acre  of  land  on  each  of  the  rivers  at  the  same  time.  This,  gen 
tlemen,  has  been  the  experience  of  our  mining  and  manufacturing  districts. 
I  talk  advisedly.  Gentlemen  here  know  that  I  have  aided  in  organizing 
and  built  up  the  most  successful  mining  company  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
we  are  shipping  to-day  over  two  thousand  tons  of  coal  per  day,  over  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  to  Philadelphia,  giving  it  a  transportation  that 


30 

would  pay  three  per  cent,  on  its  cost  alone.  Now,  gentlemen,  what  do 
you  want  out  here?  Probably  some  of  my  friends  in  Pennsylvania  think 
I  ought  not  to  tell  you  all  this,  because  you  are  bringing  all  your  rails 
from  our  section.  Perhaps  they  think  I  ought  not  to  be  posting  you  up 
on  these  matters.  But  I  am  liberal.  You  want  capital  invested  in  making 
Iron.  You  have  the  greatest  iron  mine  on  the  continent,  just  within 
reach.  You  have  iron  enough  to  make  rails  for  all  the  roads  to  the  Pa 
cific;  and,  while  you  have  all  that,  you  have  some  gentlemen  among  you 
who  do  not  believe  in  protection.  I  was  at  Troy  a  few  weeks  ago,  to  wit 
ness  the  Bessemer  steel  process.  I  there  saw  your  pig  iron  made  into 
steel — twenty  tons  per  day  with  three  tons  of  coal,  at  a  cost  of  less  than 
four  dollars  a  ton,  to  make  rails.  Why,  gentlemen,  we  take  your  ore  to 
Troy,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  we  make  it  into  steel,  rolling  it  into 
rails  to  lay  steel  roads  in  Pennsylvania,  and,  after  a  while,  to  send  it  out 
here  to  lay  steel  roads  across  the  continent.  You  see  the  interest  you  have 
in  these  mines,  if  properly  developed.  Why,  the  mining  men,  familiar 
with  this  business,  tell  me  that  the  best  iron  comes  from  the  Iron  Moun 
tain.  "Why/'  said  I,  uWhy  does  not  St.  Louis  make  the  rails  for  these 
roads.  It  is  the  best  place  on  the  continent  to  do  it. "  And  yet  you  buy 
foreign  rails,  made  by  pauper  labor,  that  enriches  only  your  enemies. 
They  all  agreed  with  me  on  that  point.  Common  sense  will  dictate  this 
to  you  all.  Now,  gentlemen,  look  out  for  this  iron  question.  Manufac 
ture  your  own  steel,  and  the  steel  that  is  required  in  the  Western  States. 
We  take  your  flour  from  Chicago,  your  wool  from  Iowa,  and  your  bacon 
from  the  West.  We  take  it  down  to  Pennsylvania  and  New  England. 
While  we  manufacture  at  the  East,  the  raw  material  is  taken  from  the 
West,  and  the  goods  are  sent  back  to  you  for  sale,  and  you  are  paying- 
transportation  both  ways.  Why,  gentlemen,  will  you  never  learn  that 
you  have  an  interest  in  the  tariff?  Do  you  not  understand  this  question  ? 
I  say  that  this  is  a  question  as  to  whether  you  will  manufacture  your  own 
iron  and  so  increase  your  wealth  to  double  its  present  amount  in  five  years. 
Then,  why  send  men  to  Congress,  to  vote  against  protecting  American 
industry? 

Excuse  me,  gentlemen;  it  is  growing  late  and  I  will  detain  you  no 
longer. 

SPEECH  OF  HON.  TIMOTHY  O.  HOWE,  OF  WISCONSIN. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — A  great  city  is  always,  under  all 
circumstances,  an  august  spectacle.  To  see  a  great  many  thousand  people 
separated  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  with  a  view  of  becoming  the  focus 


o 


of  a  great  country,  is,  itself,  a  great  sight.  It  is  sublime  in  all  its  aspects, 
in  its  industries,  in  its  avocations;  but  I  think  that  when  a  great  city 
undertakes  to  dispense  its  courtesies,  it  is  about  as  sublime  as  any  phase 
in  which  a  city  can  be  regarded.  When  a  hundred  or  two  hundred  thous 
and  people  get  up  to  bow  to  their  fellow  beings,  in  compliment  to  them, 
it  is  quite  as  great  a  spectacle  as  I  care  to  look  upon.  This  is  one  of 
those  occasions,  the  one  to  which  I  am  now  responding.  For  the  first 
time  in  my  life,  I  set  my  foot  in  St.  Louis,  to-day.  I  can  only  compre 
hend  this  city  in  one  aspect,  that  of  its  courtesy.  I  find  this  great  city 
with  its  cap  in  its  hand,  to  do  honor  to  its  visitors.  I  am  gratified  for 
this  very  distinguished  compliment  which  you  have  paid  me,  in  common 
with  my  fellow-travelers.  I  can  prove  to  }^ou  my  gratitude,  not  only  by 
telling  you  of  it,  but  resuming  my  seat  at  once,  without  saying  anything 
more.  (Applause.) 

SPEECH  OF  HON.  JOHN  A.  J.  CRESWELL,  OF  MARYLAND. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — The  great  dramatist  has 
said  that  "brevity  is  the  soul  of  wit."  Whether  or  not  this  saying  be 
universally  true  of  wit,  I  shall  not  stop  to  determine;  but  I  think  I  can 
safely  say  that  brevity  should  be  the  main  feature  of  a  speech  made  after 
twelve  o'clock  at  night,  on  a  festive  occasion.  It  therefore  behoves  me 
to  be  very  brief 

Of  compliments,  the  people  of  St.  Louis  have  had  a  surfeit  to-night. 
The  Senator  from  Michigan  has  confidently  predicted  that,  within  the 
next  five  years,  your  city  will  contain  a  population  of  500,000  souls;  and 
his  distinguished  associate  from  Illinois,  after  modestly  alluding  to  his  own 
State,  as  the  State  of  the  Union,  and,  indeed,  as  the  paradise  of  the  world, 
also  donned  the  mantle  of  the  prophet,  and  asserted  that  Illinois,  together 
with  the  States  of  Missouri,  Iowa,  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  will  very  soon 
contain  a  population  greater,  and  more  wealthy,  than  that  of  the  empire  of 
France.  I  hope  all  these  predictions  may  be  verified. 

Gentlemen  of  the  West!  you  are  a  great  people,  to  be  sure,  but  you 
are  not  all  the  people  in  the  universe.  [Laughter.]  Remember  that 
there  is  still  an  East,  and  that,  without  that  East — or  rather,  without  it 
and  the  rest  of  the  Union — you  cannot  complete  your  great  railroad  sys 
tem,  nor  construct  your  other  extensive  works  of  internal  improvements — 
you  cannot  even  continue  successfully  what  you  have  so  well  begun.  You 
cannot  rejoice  more  in  your  prosperity  than  we  do;  because  it  is  as  much 
our  work  as  yours.  Consider  what  we  have  done  in  the  past — and  in  this 
connection  I  shall  only  speak  of  my  little  State  of  Maryland,  scarcely  a 


speck  on  the  map  when  compared  with  the  measureless  area  of  this  great 
country.  Some  thirty  years  ago,  Maryland  entered  upon  an  enterprise,  so 
bold  in  its  conception,  and  requiring  such  immense  treasure  to  insure  its 
success,  that  many  of  the  most  courageous  in  the  land  shrunk  from  it  and 
predicted  that  it  would  result  in  irretrievable  disaster.  Nevertheless,  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  in  time,  surmounted  the  Alleghany  Moun 
tains,  and  accomplished  so  much  for  the  West,  that  you  should  never  cease 
to  honor  the  men  who  led  in  that  pioneer  railroad  movement.  That 
work  struck  the  Alleghany  range,  before  deemed  impassable  by  railroads, 
from  the  map;  and  it  no  longer  stands  as  an  obstacle  across  the  track  of 
progress.  The  course  of  emigration,  thus  relievd,  flowed  Westward  with 
increasing  current,  rapidly  filled  up  the  magnificent  valley  of  the  Mis 
sissippi.  To  accomplish  all  this,  we  expended  over  $30,000,000 — more 
than  one-tenth  of  the  aggregate  assessable  property  of  our  States — and 
that,  too,  without  one  dollar  of  aid  from  the  general  Government,  by  way 
of  either  lands  or  subsidies.  This  is  only  one  of  the  many  good  things 
which  the  East  has  done  for  the  West.  Without  detracting  in  the  least 
from  your  enterprise  and  business  capacity,  I  venture  the  assertion,  that 
you  must  seek  for  further  aid  from  the  public  men  and  capitalists  of  the 
East.  An  Eastern  man,  but  with  a  heart  full  of  sympathy  and  kindness 
for  the  people  of  the  West,  I  have  come  among  you  for  the. purpose  of 
verifying  with  my  eyes,  that  which  has  heretofore  been  attested  to  my 
ears;  and  I  am  free  to  confess  that  my  most  sanguine  expectations  have 
been  more  than  realized.  Like  the  Shebaen  queen,  after  she  had  seen 
the  glories  of  Solomon,  I  can  well  say  of  the  mighty  West,  "The  one  half 
was  not  told  me."  I  have  gazed  with  speechless  amazement  upon  your 
boundless  prairies,  decked  with  the  richest  herbage  and  the  most  gorgeous 
flowers;  upon  your  mighty  rivers,  burdened  with  the  fatness  of  the  land, 
and  coursing  onward,  with  untiring  current,  to  the  sea ;  upon  the  brilliant 
azure  of  your  pellucid  sky — so  clear,  and  yet  so  fathomless,  that  I  have 
thought  it  but  a  veil  of  gauze  which  God  has  spread  between  man  and  the 
dread  arcana  of  his  handiwork;  upon  the  unequaled  splendor  of  that 
sun — which,  by  day,  lights  up  your  hill  tops  and  your  valleys  with  a  flood 
of  glory,  and  then  upon  the  countless  hosts  of  heaven,  whch  dissipate  the 
night  in  the  lustrous  glittering  of  your  rejoicing  stars; — and,  overwhelmed 
by  the  prodigality  of  nature,  I  have  been  forced  to  the  conclusion,  that 
this  valley  of  the  Mississippi  has  been  prepared  by  God  for  the  centre  of 
the  great  Republic  of  Freedom.  [Great  applause.] 

But,  you  ask,  what  about  the  Pacific  Railroad?  So  far  as  I  have  been 
able  to  form  an  opinion,  I  believe  that  the  Eastern  Division  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  must  be  made  a  through  line  of  itself,  and  that  it  must 


33 

deviate  considerably  from  the  location  originally  assigned  to  it.  If  I  un 
derstand  the  position  of  affairs,  it  is  this:  When  Congress  began  to  legis 
late  in  regard  to  the  Pacific  Railroad,  your  road,  known  as  the  Eastern 
Division,  was  considered  a  mere  adjunct  of  the  great  central  line,  to  be 
projected  westward,  from  Omaha  to  the  Pacific  Sea.  Your  road  was 
obliged  to  form  a  junction  with  the  main  line  at  the  hundredth  meridian 
of  longitude.  Both  roads  were  aided  by  the  Government  to  the  extent  of 
a  loan  of  $16,000  and  a  grant  of  12,800  acres  of  land  per  mile  east  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  impression  is  now  general,  that  the  line  of 
the  Eastern  Division  must  be  deflected  more  to  the  southward  than  was  at 
first  supposed.  Able  engineers  are  now  in  the  field,  making  surveys,  in 
order  to  ascertain  the  most  favorable  route.  In  the  opinion  that  your  road 
should  go  southward,  I  fully  concur.  The  precise  location  is  a  matter  of 
detail  which  the  engineers  can  best  determine. 

If  pushed  to  the  Pacific,  this  road  will  draw,  from  the  shores  of  both 
oceans,  such  numberless  trains  of  immigrants  that  they  will  soon  American 
ize  the  whole  country  acquired  under  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo 
and  the  Gadsden  Purchase.  When  that  old  Mexican  territory  shall  be 
filled  up  with  a  population  of  freemen,  "who  know  their  rights,  and  know 
ing,  dare  maintain  them,"  and  who  have  been  taught  to  bow  with  sub 
mission  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  law,  new  States  will  spring,  as  it  were, 
spontaneously  into  being,  from  the  Arkansas  to  the  north  of  the  Rio  Col 
orado.  I  am  sure  that  every  dollar  expended  by  the  Government,  in 
building,  not  merely  one,  but  several,  railroads  to  the  Pacific,  will  be  re 
paid  ten  fold  in  the  direct  returns,  and  an  hundred  fold  in  organizing  so 
ciety,  and  establishing  States,  in  the  course  of  their  progress.  By  the 
facilities  which  they  will  create,  they  will  carve  the  wilderness  into  happy 
homes  for  many  millions.  [Cheers.] 

What  I  assert  is  no  longer  speculation.  Conjecture  lias  been  superseded 
by  certainty.  Figures,  based  uqon  actual  expenditures  and  receipts,  prove, 
beyond  doubt,  that  whatever  the  Government  may  give  ivill  not  be  an  ad 
vance  upon  doubtful  security,  but  a  loan  from  which  it  will  derive  a  vast 
return.  1  therefore  my,  unreservedly,  that  I  am  in  favor  of  making  your 
road  a  through  line  to  the  Pacific,  and  of  lending  to  it  the  aid  of  the  Gov 
ernment  to  the  extent  of  that  given  to  the  Omaha  line;  and,  if  that  be  not 
sufficient,  then  I  am  in  favor  of  giving  to  both  roads  such  further  aid  as 
may  be  necessary  to  insure  their  completion  at  the  earliest  practicable  day. 
[Long  continued  applause.] 

It  is  necessary  that  you,  the  people  of  St.  Louis,  and  of  all  Missouri  and 
Kansas,  should  use  your  utmost  exertions  to  complete  the  Kansas  line  to 


34 

the  Pacific.  Get  up  a  spirit  of  emulation.  Let  no  obstacle  stand  in  the 
way.  Snow  drifts  on  the  upper  line  will  not  win  your  battle.  The  men 
who  control  the  Union  Pacific  line  are  endowed  with  superhuman  energy 
They  will  conquer  the  snowy  mountains  as  certainly  as  they  have  con 
quered  the  wide  prairie.  They  will  go  through,  or  over,  or  under  any 
barrier  that  may  present  itself.  They  will  either  excavate  it,  or  bridge  it, 
or  tunnel  it.  This  nation  will  not  wait  because  the  timid  fear  a  storm  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  In  short,  you  must  succeed  by  your  courage  and 
enterprise.  We  of  the  East  will  help  you  all  we  can;  and  no  man,  who 
considers  what  we  have  done  in  the  past,  can  doubt  the  sincerity  with 
which  we  proffer  you  our  assistance  in  the  future.  (Applause  ) 

These  Continental  Railroads,  when  completed,  will  bind  together  this 
Republic  with  their  iron  ligaments.  No  political  convulsion  will  ever  be 
strong  enough  to  separate  the  East  from  the  West.  Hundreds  of  millions 
of  treasure  will  appeal  to  the  interests  of  the  people  in  unison  with  the 
dictates  of  patriotism.  The  telegraph  and  the  railroad — the  one  far  out 
stripping,  and  the  other  rivaling,  the  speed  of  the  flying  hours — will  more 
effectually  consolidate  our  Union  than  all  the  enginery  of  "grim  visaged 
war"  combined.  Hence,  I  advocate  the  speedy  construction  of  these 
roads,  in  order  that  the  meridians — which  stretch  from  the  equator,  north 
ward  to  the  pole — may  be  bound  together  by  iron  parallels  of  latitude,  so 
strong  as  to  render  disruption  impossible. 

Men  of  Missouri!  recent  events  have  wedded  you  more  closely  to  us  of 
Maryland.  Our  States  have  learned  to  love  each  other  more  dearly,  be 
cause  of  the  bloody  ordeal  through  which  they  have  lately  been  required 
to  pass.  We  know,  now,  full  well,  the  value  of  the  Union,  and  the  fear 
ful  results  which  would  flow  from  its  destruction.  Having  learned  our 
duty  in  the  same  severe  school,  let  us  swear  this  night  then,  when  these 
roads  shall  have  linked  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  their  iron  girders 
shall  have  spanned  nearly  one-eighth  of  the  earth's  circumference,  they 
shall  never  be  severed  by  the  division  lines  of  hostile  States.  (Immense 
applause.) 

RESOLUTIONS  PASSED  BY  THE  SENATORIAL  PARTY, 

A  meeting  of  the  Senatorial  party  of  Vice-President  WADE,  was  held 
at  the  Southern  Hotel,  on  June  15th,  18G7. 

Hon.  B.  F.  WADE,  Chairman. 

Hon.  J.  A.  J.  CRESWELL,  Secretary. 


35 

Ou  motion  of  Hon.  Z.  CHANDLER,  a  Committee  was  appointed  to  pre 
pare  suitable  resolutions. 

Mr.  WADE  appointed  the  following: 

Hon.  Z.  ('HANDLER,  of  Michigan. 
Hon.  T.  0.  HOWE,  of  Wisconsin. 
General  11.  V.  N.  BOYNTON,  of  Ohio. 
Hon.  JOHN  COVODE,  of  Pennsylvania. 
Hon.  H.  E.  PARSONS,  of  Ohio. 
General  ANSON  STAGER,  of  Ohio. 
Hon.  E,.  YATES,  of  Illinois. 
U.  H.  PAINTER,  of  Pennsylvania. 
Hon.  A.  G.  CATTELL,  New  Jersey. 
Hon.  LYMAN  TRTJMBULL,  Illinois. 

Mr.  CHANDLER,  Chairman  of  the  Committee,  reported  the  following 
Resolutions,  which  were  unanimously  adopted : 

Resolved r,  1.  That  we  highly  appreciate  and  applaud  the  wisdom,  fore 
sight  and  courageous  persistence  of  the  patriotic  men  who  inaugurated 
the  grand  enterprise  of  the  Pacific  Railway,  and  believing  that  its  feasi 
bility  and  utility  have  been  already  clearly  demonstrated,  we  congratulate 
them  and  the  country  upon  the  success  which  has  crowned  their  efforts. 

2.  That,  being  fully  satisfied  of  the  many  advantages  attending  the 
location  of  the  road  through  Kansas,  by  reason  of  the  inexhaustible  fer 
tility  of  the  soil,  the  salubrity  of  the  climate,  and  the  industry  and  intel 
ligence  of  its  rapidly  increasing  population,  we  earnestly  recommend  it  to 
the  cordial  support  of  the  Government  and  the  capitalists  of  the  country. 

3.  That  after  a  personal  survey  of  a  part  of  the  country  through  which 
the  Eastern  Division  of  the  Pacific  Railway  is  located,  we  confidently  pre 
dict  that  the  successful  prosecution  of  that  road,  will  effect  the  best  and  most 
economical  solution  of  the  Indian  question,  by  uniting  a  continuous  line  of 
settlements  across  the  continent)  and  by  affording  at  every  station  a  base  of 
operations  for  such  military  movements  as  may  hereafter  become  necessary. 

-i.  That  this  railway  to  the  Pacific,  by  a  large  reduction  in  the  cost  of 
transportation,  will  more  than  repay  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
for  the  bonds  loaned  to  aid  in  its  construction,  and  that  the  American  people 
require  that  this  road  should  be  completed  to  the  Pacific  coast,  in  the  short- 
tcxt  practicable  time. 

5.     That  we  return  our  sincere  thanks  to  Win.  M.  McPhersou,  Esq., 


36 

General  Wm.  J.  Palmer,  Judge  J.  P.  Usher,  and  the  other  officers  and 
employees  of  the  road,  for  their  kindness  and  attention  to  us  during  the 
excursion,  and  especially  for  the  cheerful  readiness  with  which  they  com 
municated  to  us  all  needful  information  concerning  their  road,  its  work 
and  prospects. 

6.  That  we  also  acknowledge  our  indebtedness  to  the  Mayor,  City 
Council  and  Merchants'  Exchange  of  St.  Louis,  for  the  generous  recep 
tion  and  very  nattering  entertainment  given  us  on  the  night  of  our  arrival 
in  this  city;  also  to  the  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  of  Missouri,  and  its  offi 
cers,  for  special  cars  furnished  to  our  party  and  the  opportunity  afforded 
us  of  examining  their  road,  and  the  fertile  and  prosperous  country  through 
which  it  runs;  and  to  the  Iron  Mountain  Railroad  Company,  for  its  liber 
ality  in  placing  at  our  disposal  a  special  train,  by  which  we  were  enabled 
to  visit  Iron  Mountain  and  Pilot  Knob. 

BENJAMIN  F.  WADE,  President. 

JOHN  A.  J.  CRESWELL,  Secretary. 
ST.  Louis,  June  15^,  1867. 


MEETINGS  OF  EXCURSIONISTS, 


HELD    JUNE   7th  and   8th,  1867, 


AT  THE  WESTERN  END  OP  THE  TRACK  OP 


THE  UNION  PACIFIC  B&ILW&Y,  E.D, 


PROCEEDINGS  AT  FORT  BARKER, 


OUST  JUNE   Tth,  1867". 


From  the  MISSOURI  REPUBLICAN. 

Hon.  H.  A.  RISLEY,  Assistant  Solicitor  United  States  Treasury,  called 
the  meeting  to  order,  and  nominated  Hon.  SIMON  CAMERON,  United 
States  Senate,  for  President,  which  was  unanimously  agreed  to. 

The  following  named  officers  were  then  elected : 

VICE   PRESIDENTS. 

Hon.  A.  F.  STEVENS,  New  Hampshire, 
"     J.  A.  NICHOLSON,  Delaware, 
"     A.  H.  LAFLIN,  New  York, 
"     C.  H.  VAN  WYCK,  New  York, 
"     B.  M.  KITCHEN,  West  Virginia, 

"       C.  D.  HUBBARD, 

'•     J.  L.  THOMAS,  Maryland, 

"•     G.  S.  ORTH,  Indiana, 
Major  General  HANCOCK,  U.  S.  A., 
General  HAINES,  U.  S.  A., 
"       HAZEN,  U.  S.  A., 
"       DONALDSON,  U.  S.  A., 
Hon.  G.  W.  MORGAN,  Ohio, 

"     J.  B.  HENDERSON,  Missouri, 

"     MR.  NEWCOMB, 

"     W.  E.  NIBLACK,  Indiana. 

SECRETARIES. 

ALEXANDER  K.  PEDRICK,  of  Pennsylvania, 
C.  C.  FULTON,  of  Maryland. 


40 

CHAS.  H.  ROGERS,  President  of  the  Tradesmen's  Bank,  Philadelphia, 
moved  the  appointment  of  a  Committee  to  draft  resolutions  expressive  of 
the  views  of  the  excursionists.  The  motion  was  agreed  to. 

The  following  Committee  was  appointed,  viz : 

CHAS.  H.  ROGERS,  Pennsylvania, 

TV.  TV.  TAYLOR,  President  National  Bank,  Baltimore, 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT,  Pennsylvania, 

FRED.  SCHLEY,  Maryland, 

Colonel  J.  E.  SCHLEY,  Maryland, 

CYRUS  YALE,  New  Orleans, 

Hon.  FRANK  JORDAN,  Secretary  of  State,  Pennsylvania. 

During  the  absence  of  the  Committee  to  prepare  resolutions,  the  Presi 
dent,  Hon.  SIMON  CAMERON,  spoke  as  follows: 

SPEECH  OF  SENATOR  CAMERON,  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — For  the  last  four  or  five  days  we  have  been 
traveling  through  a  country  so  magnificent,  passing  through  Missouri  and 
Kansas,  that  I  scarcely  know  how  to  speak  in  terms  strong  enough,  of  this 
Western  country.  TVe  are  now  about  fifteen  hundred  miles  from  the  At 
lantic  Ocean,  and  for  some  days  we  have  been  passing  through  what  used 
to  be  called  the  Far  West;  so  far,  indeed,  that  within  the  last  few  years, 
this  region,  now  so  full  of  the  evidences  of  mighty  progress,  was  consid 
ered  far  beyond  the  limits  of  civilization — only  fit  for  the  home  of  the 
savage  Indian,  and  his  proper  companion,  the  wild  buffalo.  And  yet,  here 
we  have  come  over  an  excellent  railroad,  in  the  same  cars  in  which  we 
started  from  the  banks  of  the  Delaware,  almost  within  hearing  of  the 
sound  of  the  waves  of  the  Eastern  Ocean.  We  have  traveled  through 
this  long  distance  scarcely  aware  that  we  have  left  our  homes.  Every 
where  we  have  been  welcomed  by  the  evidences  of  the  most  refined  civil 
ization,  and  entertained  with  the  most  lavish  hospitality.  We  have  slept 
well  and  regularly;  we  have  dined  at  tables,  furnished  not  only  with  deli 
cious  viands,  equal  to  the  best  hotel  tables  of  the  East,  but  replete  with 
every  kind  of  luxury,  and  served  to  us  in  the  most  inviting  forms. 

The  cities  which  we  have  seen,  some  of  them  the  growth  of  weeks  only, 
are  crowded  with  business,  and  so  bear  the  marks  of  years  of  industry, 
under  the  magic  of  enterprise  and  self-reliance.  When  we  return  to  our 
homes,  and  tell  of  what  we  have  seen,  we  shall  be  told  that  we  have  as 
serted  the  traveler's  privilege,  and  drawn  on  our  imagination  for  our  facts. 


41 

All  this  wonderful  prosperity  I  ascribe,  first,  to  our  Republican  institu 
tions,  which  allow  all  to  choose  their  own  destinies;  and  next,  to  the  unpar 
alleled  fertility  of  your  soil. 

The  State  of  Missouri,  which  we  have  left  behind  us,  has  before  her 
such  a  future  as  the  brightest  imagination  cannot  picture.  Just  relieved 
of  the  incubus  of  slavery,  her  fertile  soil,  her  extraordinary  mineral  re 
sources,  and  her  genial  climate,  and  her  commanding  geographical  position, 
will  attract,  is  now  attracting,  to  her  a  population  of  intelligent  and  adven 
turous  men,  who  will  place  her  at  once  in  the  first  rank  with  the  most 
opulent  States  of  our  Union.  And,  in  passing,  I  desire  to  say  to  men  of 
capital,  that  no  safer  or  more  profitable  investment  can  be  made  than  in 
her  advancement  and  in  her  obligations.  No  where  else  can  larger  re 
wards  await  investments,  nor  can  any  State  offer  greater  certainty  to  her 
public  creditors.  Freemen  never  become  repudiators  when  they  are  able 
to  pay,  and  with  such  a  soil  and  climate,  men  of  industry  and  thrift  never 
remain  poor. 

We  are  now  in  the  State  of  Kansas.  We  will  say  it  contains  about 
two  hundred  thousand  inhabitants  We  have  traveled  nearly  across  it, 
and  we  have  scarcely  seen  an  acre  of  land  which  was  not  capable  of  culti 
vation,  and  of  producing  as  abundantly  as  land  in  Lancaster  county, 
Pennsylvania,  where  over  two  hundred  dollars  is  paid  for  an  acre  of  land, 
and  where  every  owner  of  a  farm  is  the  possessor  of  a  fortune.  This  soil 
which  I  have  passed  over,  far  surpasses  anything  we  have  in  the  Eastern 
States.  It  is  not  broken  by  rocky  mountains,  but  is  everywhere  cultivable. 
The  very  hills  from  which  we  saw  those  veins  of  limestone  cropping  out, 
contain  just  what  is  required  to  make  the  habitations  of  man  beautiful 
and  luxuriant.  Imagine  quarries  of  more  than  a  hundred  miles  in  extent, 
upon  a  slight  acclivity,  and  in  sight  of  the  railroad,  containing  stone  only 
equalled  in  beauty  by  the  purest  marble,  cropping  out  in  full  view  of  the 
passer-by,  so  soft  when  taken  from  its  bed,  that  it  can  be  fashioned  into 
any  shape  by  the  saw,  and  yet,  by  exposure,  becoming  as  hard  as  granite; 
does  not  this  appear  to  be  given  to  you  by  an  All-wise  and  beneficent 
Providence,  to  compensate  for  the  absence  of  timber  on  the  fertile  plains 
below?  Kansas  has  a  territory  extending  four  hundred  miles  in  length, 
from  east  to  west;  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  width  from  north 
to  south.  Have  I  over-stated  your  probable  future,  when  I  say  that  you 
will  at  some  future  day,  not  very  far  distant,  contain  a  population  une- 
qualed  by  any  similar  portion  of  Europe  or  America?  Think  for  a  mo 
ment,  that  the  great  Pacific  Ilailroad  will  traverse  your  State  from  its 
eastern  to  its  western  border,  carrying  not  only  the  product  of  the  teem 
ing  region  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific,  but  bringing  through 


42 

this  State  the  wealth  of  China,  Japan  and  distant  India  on  its  way  to  the 
markets  of  the  world.  If  you  still  doubt,  look  to  the  region  South  of 
Kansas,  containing  hundreds  of  thousands  of  square  miles,^n  which  the 
productions  of  the  tropics  are  grown;  then  turn  your  eyes  to  the  north 
ward,  where  the  incalculable  wealth,  consisting  of  precious  minerals,  must 
be  brought  to  your  doors,  and  so  stimulate  the  enterprise,  and  increase 
the  wealth  of  your  great  State. 

if;***********:}; 

I  have  only  to  add,  that  I  have  been  highly  gratified  at  witnessing  the 
manner  in  which  the  Pacific  Railroad  has  progressed.  I  have  been  pleased 
with  the  energy  which  has  actuated  its  managers.  To  Mr.  Perry,  its 
President,  whose  public  spirit  and  courage  in  investing  his  private  for 
tune;  to  the  energy  of  its  directors,  and  to  their  excellent  Superintendent, 
Mr.  Shoemaker,  whose  ability  is  not  surpassed  by  any  man  in  our  railroad 
enterprise,  does  this  great  work  mainly  owe  its  amazing  progress. 

I  profess  to  have  some  knowledge  of  railroad  affairs,  and  coming  here 
with  a  wish  to  see  the  great  road  built  in  the  shortest  possible  period, 
I  could  scarcely  believe  that  such  progress  was  being  made  as  the  news 
papers  chronicled;  nevertheless,  I  have  seen  it  fully  verified,  and  I  have 
witnessed  one  of  the  most  wonderful  feats  performed  in  the  history  of 
commerce. 

In  my  public  capacity,  I  shall  continue  to  be  the  warm  friend  of  this 
road,  and  I  shall  not  stop  at  that,  for  I  will  extend  the  largest  measure  of 
assistance  to  that  other  road  on  your  northern  side,  which  is  being  so 
rapidly  pushed  to  completion. 

In  my  judgment,  formed  after  an  examination  of  the  geography  of  this 
continent,  this  road,  on  which  we  now  stand,  will  diverge  to  the  south 
ward,  and  strike  the  Colorado  at  or  about  Albuquerque,  and  so  pass  down 
to  the  Gulf  of  California,  reaching  the  Pacific  in  the  region  of  San  Diego. 
By  this  route,  I  am  informed  lighter  grades  will  be  required,  a  milder 
climate  will  be  met,  and  obstructions  from  snow  be  less  frequent.  In  ad 
dition  to  this,  such  a  line  will  form  the  back-bone  or  main  stem,  for  a 
great  number  of  roads  running  from  the  North  to  the  South,  to  accommo 
date  the  traffic  of  that  immense  region  on  either  side  of  it.  And  when 
all  this  is  done,  it  will  be  found  that  your  two  lines  to  the  Pacific  will  be 
inadequate  to  the  enormous  trade  which  will  seek  the  Atlantic  over  their 
lines.  True  to  that  which  I  conceive  to  be  my  duty,  I  shall  always  be 
found  ready  to  afford  the  greatest  protection  to  manufacturing,  and  the 
largest  facilities  to  commerce  and  agriculture,  believing,  as  I  firmly  do, 
that  each  depends  on  the  other,  and  so  intimately,  that  if  we  permit  either 
of  these  vast  interests  to  suffer,  we  injure  the  other  in  equal  ratio,  and 
must  endure  the  penalty  of  our  folly. 


43 

I  recognize  in  this  improvement  a  work  which  will  benefit  all  three : 
and  I  shall  continue  to  extend  the  public  aid  to  every  railroad  to  the  Pa 
cific.  I  can  conceive  of  nothing  so  properly  entitled  to  the  fostering  care 
of  our  Government.  In  building  these  roads,  we  quicken  agriculture  by 
creating  markets;  awaken  manufactures  when  they  scarcely  exist,  and  we 
increase  the  ever  widening  and  deepening  stream  of  commerce  which 
builds  cities  like  magic  in  our  land. 

Trusting  that  we  may  all  meet  four  years  hence  at  St.  Louis,  to  make  a 
trip  to  San  Francisco,  by  rail  all  the  way,  I  now  give  way  to  enable  other 
gentlemen  to  address  you  on  the  subject  in  hand,  as  it  strikes  their  obser 
vation. 

RESOLUTIONS. 

Mr.  FREDERICK  SCHLEY,  on  behalf  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions; 
presented  the  following  Preamble  and  Resolutions,  viz : 

WHEREAS,  An  excursion  party  from  the  States  of  New  York,  Penn 
sylvania,  New  Hampshire,  Maryland,  District  of  Columbia,  Ohio,  Indiana,. 
Illinois,  Missouri,  West  Virginia,  Michigan,  and  Kansas,  has  this  day 
reached  Fort  Harker,  Kansas,  a  point  on  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  East 
ern  Division,  1525  miles  west  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  on  the  direct  route 
to  California,  and  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  and  now  desire  to  give  expres 
sion  to  their  views  in  regard  to  the  Pacific  Railway,  Eastern  Division,  and 
the  courtesies  which  they  have  received  in  the  West;  and, 

WHEREAS,  they  realize  as  their  own  belief,  and  that  of  the  American 
people,  that  our  mission  extends,  as  a  nation,  not  only  to  the  promotion  of 
liberty,  fraternity  and  equality,  but  to  the  encouragement  of  great  works 
of  art,  which  shall  be  as  enduring  as  our  national  fame,  and  which  shall 
bind  together  by  the  strong  ties  of  commercial  interest,  the  cities  on  the 
shores  of  two  widely  separated  Oceans;  and, 

WHEREAS,  Foremost  among  these  works  is  a  Pacific  Railway,  a  project 
bold  and  daring  in  its  inception,  and  worthy  of  a  people  whose  enterprise 
has  already  studded  the  mountains  and  plains  of  a  continent  with  the  evi 
dences  of  national  prosperity.  Therefore,  we,  the  excursionists,  assembled 
at  a  point  almost  in  the  centre  of  the  American  continent,  have 

Resolved,  That,  as  guests  of  the  Union  Railway  Company,  Eastern  Di 
vision,  having  traveled  over  fifteen  hundred  miles  in  the  same  cars,  with 
every  possible  comfort,  receiving  a  generous  hospitality,  and  enjoying  a 
constant  succession  of  agreeable  and  instructive  incidents,  we  hereby 
tender  our  acknowledgments  to  the  President,  Directors,  Ofiicers  and 


44 

Agents  of  the  Company,  for  the  rare  opportunity,  the  liberal  provisions  for 
our  comfort,  and  all  the  realizations  of  this  remarkable  journey  from  the 
seaboard  almost  to  the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Resolved,  That  we  congratulate  the  President  and  Managers  of  the 
Eastern  Division  of  the  Pacific  Railway,  upon  the  rapid  and  substantial 
progress  of  their  work,  a  miracle  of  labor,  art  and  capital,  and  a  splendid 
monument  of  their  energy  and  enterprise,  and  that  we  congratulate  the 
nation  upon  the  prospect  of  an  early  completion  of  this  magnificent  avenue 
of  commerce ,  which  promises  so  much  for  the  rapid  settlement  of  an  almost 
boundless  domain — for  enlarging  the  field  of  labor  and  production,  and 
which  will  be  at  all  seasons  of  such  immeasurable  value  and  importance  to 
our  country  in  times  of  war  and  of  peace. 

Resolved,  That  we  commend  to  the  fostering  care  of  the  Government  and 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  this  great  undertaking  as  one  that  will  ma 
terially  promote  the  development  of  the  mineral,  agricultural  and  commer 
cial  resources  of  the  extreme  Western  States  and  Territories,  and  as  a  great 
highway  between  the  Oceans,  believing  that  it  will  add  immeasurably  to  the 
wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  nation,  to  provide  the  necessary  aid  for  its 
early  completion. 

Resolved,  That  our  acknowledgments  are  also  due  to  the  citizens  of  St. 
Louis,  Leavenworth,  Lawrence,  Topeka,  Salina,  Junction  City,  Kansas 
City,  Hermann,  and  the  various  cities  and  towns  on  our  way,  and  to  Gen 
eral  Hancock,  U.  S.  A.,  commanding  the  Department  of  Missouri,  and  his 
associate  officers  on  the  line  of  the  Pacific  Railway,  for  civilities  and  cour 
tesies  gracefully  and  generously  bestowed,  which  lent  additional  charm  to 
our  journey,  and  will  be  long  remembered. 

Resolved,  That  our  thanks  are  tendered  to  the  officers  of  the  Pennsyl 
vania  Central,  Pittsburgh,  Columbus  &  Cincinnati,  Columbus  &  Indian 
apolis,  Terre  Haute  &  Indianapolis,  St.  Louis,  Alton  &  Terre  Haute,  and 
the  Pacific  and  Missouri  River  Railroads,  for  facilities  and  courtesies  re 
ceived  on  the  roads  respectively  under  their  supervision,  each  of  them  an 
important  link  in  the  lengthened  line  we  have  so  happily  traversed. 

Hon.  W.  E.  CHANDLER,  of  Washington,  moved  the  adoption  of  the 
Resolutions,  and  they  were  unanimously  adopted. 

Hon.  BENJ.  H.  BREWSTER,  Attorney  General  of  Pennsylvania,  sus 
tained  the  Resolutions  in  an  address. 

Mr.  JOHN  D.  PERRY,  President  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  Eastern 
Division,  acknowledged  the  compliment  to  the  Company. 


45 

Judge  USHER,  of  Indiana,  spoke  on  behalf  of  the  Company  and  of  the 
West. 

The  meeting  then  adjourned  to  reassemble  at  a  convenient  opportunity. 


PROCEEDINGS  AT  FORT  HARKER, 


JUNE  8th, 


From  the  MISSOURI  REPUBLIC  AW. 

After  the  party  had  visited  the  various  points  of  interest  at  the  Fort, 
it  was  announced  that  General  Hancock  would  be  called  upon  for  a  speech, 
and  in  order  that  he  might  be  heard,  the  excursionists  retired  to  a  little 
hill  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  and  were  soon  seated  on  its  western  slope, 
in  regular  camp-meeting  style. 

Hon.  W.  E.  NIBLACK,  of  Indiana,  called  the  party  to  order,  and  nomi 
nated  Senator  JOHN  B.  HENDERSON,  of  Missouri,  as  President. 

SPEECH  Or  SENATOR  HENDERSON,  OF  MISSOURI. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN : — We  assemble  here  this  morning  at  what 
we  suppose  may  now  be  termed  the  Western  end  of  civilization.  Civili 
zation  certainly  will  follow  this  road  as  rapidly  as  it  is  completed.  During 
the  last  week  or  two,  I  understand  the  buffalo  might  have  been  seen  near 
here  by  any  of  us.  Now,  we  cannot  see  them,  because  they  are  driven 
away  by  the  whistle  of  the  locomotive.  If  we  go  ten  or  fifteen  miles 
West,  we  can  see  them  in  the  greatest  numbers.  In  the  course  of  ten  or 
fifteen  days  more,  they  will  be  driven  still  further  West.  The  building 
of  this  road  is  a  great  enterprise,  looking  to  the  connection  of  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  Oceans;  and  the  purpose  of  our  coming  here  has  been  simply 
to  see  how  Mr.  Perry  is  getting  along  with  this  work.  We  want  to  see 
whether  he  has  discharged  his  duty  to  the  Government.  We  want  to  see 
precisely  whether  it  is  advisable  to  aid  him  any  further  by  the  Govern 
ment.  That  is  my  object,  and  I  believe  that  it  is  the  object  of  all.  Now, 


46 

fellow-citizens,  I  live  West  of  the  Mississippi  river,  and  as  Colonel  Benton 
used  to  say,  "on  tlie  sunset  side  of  the  Father  of  Waters,"  and  it  is  not 
for  me  to  make  speeches.  You,  gentlemen,  that  are  from  the  east  of  that 
river,  are  our  guests,  and  we  are  your  hosts,  and  it  would  be  improper  for 
me  to  make  a  speech  at  all  until  you  have  been  heard. 

Fellow-citizens,  I  will  call  upon  General  Hancock  to  address  you. 
[Cheers.]  It  matters  not  where  General  Hancock  lives.  It  makes  no 
difference  whether  East  or  West,  he  belongs  to  the  great  Republic. 
[Cheers.]  He  is  one  of  those  men  who  are  at  home  everywhere,  in  every 
locality,  and  in  every  State.  If  I  am  in  Missouri,  I  would  say  he  is  a 
citizen  of  Missouri;  if  I  am  in  New  York,  I  would  say  he  is  a  citizen  of 
New  York;  but  being  away  out  among  the  buffalo,  I  will  say  that  Gen 
eral  Hancock  belongs  to  the  Western  part  of  Kansas.  I  now  introduce 
to  you  Major  General  W.  S.  Hancock. 

SPEECH  OF  GENERAL  HANCOCK. 

In  the  presence  of  so  many  ladies,  I  do  not  propose  to  make  a  speech, 
while  there  are  so  many  here  that  have  the  ability  to  make  a  speech,  and 
to  entertain  every  lady  and  gentleman  here  assembled  much  better  than  I 
can  pretend  to;  but  I  do  feel  it  a  privilege  to  be  able  to  welcome  you  here 
to  the  confines  of  the  land  of  the  buffalo  and  of  the  wild  Indian.  It  has 
been  but  a  few  days  since  that  the  buffalo  were  right  here  in  sight  of  the 
post.  This  may  never  occur  again.  It  has  been  but  a  year  or  so  that  a 
careless  soldier  was  scalped  by  Indians,  on  the  bank  of  the  little  stream 
where  you  encamped  last  night.  This  will  never  occur  again.  This 
great  railroad  brings  civilization  with  it.  It  has  brought  civilization  here. 
Such  has  been  the  result,  and  as  it  goes  West  it  will  continue  to  carry 
civilization  along  with  it,  so  that  when  the  Rocky  Mountains  are  reached, 
the  wild  Indian  and  the  buffalo  will  have  passed  away.  It  is  necessary, 
however,  for  the  safety  of  these  great  roads,  that  the  Indians  should  be 
prevented  from  committing  depredations  upon  them.  The  young  men  who 
cannot  be  controlled  by  their  chiefs,  will  commit  these  depredations  if  not 
restrained  or  prevented.  It  may  be  a  hard  thing  to  say,  that  the  Indian 
should  be  driven  from  his  hunting  grounds,  but  we  cannot  help  it;  we 
cannot  stop  the  march  of  civilization;  it  must  proceed,  the  Indian  must 
be  placed  on  reservations  and  kept  there,  that  people  may  travel  from  this 
post  across  the  plains  in  safety,  and  without  hourly  expecting  to  be  at 
tacked  and  perhaps  killed. 

This  is  a  great  enterprise  which  you  are  here  to-day  to  see,  but  if  the 
present  system  goes  on — if  we  allow  these  Indians  to  live  upon  this  line 


47 

of  railroad,  to  make  raids  upon  it  from  time  to  time,  one  half  of  them  will 
interfere  with  your  progress;  but  it  is  possible  to  prevent  them  from  doing 
this,  and  also,  to  prevent  them  from  extermination.  The  Government 
must  take  wise  measures  to  protect  these  Indians,  and  to  prevent  them 
from  making  encroachments.  Every  man  who  takes  his  family  out  upon 
the  plains,  feels  that  he  has  a  right  to  go  there,  and  to  feel  that  himself 
and  his  wife  and  children  are  safe;  and  when  they  are  not  safe  from  being 
scalped,  he  feels  that  he  hcis  the  right  to  demand  that  Government  should 
protect  him  and  his  family,  and  should  punish  the  Indians,  even  to  exter 
mination,  if  necessary,  for  the  crimes  committed  by  them.  We  all  know 
that  such  is  the  feeling,  and  we  cannot  prevent  it.  "We  should  take  the 
Indian  and  save  him  from  extermination;  place  him  upon  a  reservation 
and  give  him  the  elements  of  civilization,  and  cause  him  to  live  as  the 
people  of  this  great  country  do,  and  not  to  be  an  obstacle  in  the  march  of 
civilization.  It  is  necessary  that  this  country  should  have  a  railroad 
to  the  Pacific,  and  if  we  can  have  two,  surely  it  would  be  better  than  one; 
but  let  not  the  wild  Indian  be  the  barrier  that  shall  separate  the  Atlantic 
from  the  Pacific.  [Cheers.] 

The  Chairman  next  introduced  Hon.  C.  D.  Hubbard,  M.C.,  from  West 
Virginia. 

SPEECH  OF  HON.  C.  D.  HUBBARD,  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  UNION,  EEPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  STATES 

THAT  NOW  ARE,  AND  OF  THE  STATES  THAT  ARE  YET  TO  BE: For  I 

verily  believe  there  are  in  this  assembly,  many  of  the  representatives  of 
States,  which  shall  yet  be  organized  along  this  great  highway,  over  which 
we  have  been  enjoying  the  present  excursion.  I  know  not  in  what  words 
to  answer  to  the  call  you  have  made  upon  me.  Standing,  as  I  do  to-day, 
in  the  centre  of  the  great  Republic  of  North  America,  and  by  consequence 
in  the  centre  of  the  world,  it  were  no  great  stretch  of  fancy  to  imagine 
that  we  feel  the  eternal  currents  of  the  trade  winds;  that  we  hear  the 
restless  roar  of  the  Ocean  tides;  or,  that  we  can  behold  the  grand  proces 
sion  of  the  centuries.  We  do  behold,  in  reality,  the  progression  of  the 
noblest  and  the  grandest  work  mankind  has  ever  seen — the  Union  Pacific 
Railway — a  work  of  untold  benefit  to  our  country  and  the  world. 

Mr.  Chairman,  we  have  often  heard  of  "Young  America/'  the  young 
man  for  whom  the  world  has  been  waiting  these  nearly  6,000  years.  I 
am  glad  to  say,  sir,  the  young  man  is  here  to-day,  and  I  propose  that  here, 
on  the  virgin  soil  of  this  young  State,  we  plant  a  second  garden  of  Eden, 
and  place  this  young  man  in  possession,  for  its  culture  and  development. 


48 

And  the  help-meet  for  this  young  man,  I  am  proud  to  say,  the  young 
woman,  is  here,  also;  [cheers,]  and  I  am  satisfied  that  with  fifty-nine 
centuries  experience  of  sour  apples,  she  will  prove  no  unworthy  help-meet 
in  working  out  the  glorious  future,  which  we  believe  is  now  dawning  on 
our  race.  This  is  the  proper  place  where  she  should  be  installed  in  her 
true  position;  here,  on  the  soil  of  Kansas,  where,  ere  another  year,  she 
is  to  be  allowed  to  take  her  share,  and  exercise  her  right,  in  the  control 
and  power  of  the  Government;  thus  being  restored  to  that  position  as 
signed  her  by  the  Creator,  when  he  gave,  not  him,  but  "them,  dominion 
over  all  the  earth. " 

I  may  be  pardoned  a  brief  reference  to  the  State  from  which  I  came.  I 
know  that  the  constituents  of  my  friends,  Messrs.  Orth  and  Niblack,  when 
they  came  to  our  rescue  in  the  dark  days  of '  61,  used  to  tell  us  that  "our 
prairies  stood  on  edge,"  while  our  boys  could  only  respond,  "So  much 
the  better,  we  can  cultivate  both  sides. "  Yet  these  mountain  sides  pro 
duce  earnest  men,  and  true  women;  and  I  am  glad  to  say,  we  have  a 
representative  man  here  to-day,  in  the  President  of  your  Railway  Company, 
a  man  who  owes  his  birth  and  early  manhood  to  West  Virginia,  but  who 
has  given  his  mature  manhood  to  Missouri  and  Kansas,  to  the  whole 
country  and  the  world;  for  with  his  associates,  he  builds  a  pathway  over 
which  shall  yet  flow  the  commerce  of  the  world.  All  honor  to  John  D. 
Perry,  President  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway.  [Cheers  for  Mr,  Perry.] 

This  road,  Mr.  Chairman,  will  settle  the  Indian  question,  the  Utah 
question — questions  now  pressing  for  solution  at  the  hands  of  the  American 
people,  and  will  bind  together  more  firmly  the  Union,  saved  to  humanity 
at  such  a  terrible  cost  of  blood  and  treasure.  A  work,  thus  involving  so 
much  of  the  nation's  welfare,  should  be  considered  a  national  work,  and 
receive  a  nation's  support. 

It  could  hardly  be  expected,  that  a  man,  coming  as  I  do,  from  a  land  of 
hills  and  mountains,  should  have  any  adequate  conception  of  the  bound 
less  resources  of  your  plains  and  prairies;  but  I  believe  I  can  appreciate 
that  good  feeling  and  hospitality,  which  are  even  more  boundless  than 
your  prairies.  It  will  not  do  for  this  ''•  goodlie  companie"  to  talk  any 
more  of  "  the  good  time  coming."  We  shall  talk  hereafter  of  that  good 
time  we  are  now  enjoying,  and  our  memories  will  be  full  of  pleasant  recol 
lections  while  we  render  our  grateful  thanks  to  the  earnest  men  who  have 
planned  for  us  this  great  enjoyment,  and  who  are  doing  so  much  for  our 
common  country. 


SPEECH    OF    HON.  B.  H.  BREWSTER. 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  AND  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN:  With  diffidence 
and  reluctance,  I  have  consented  to  speak  on  this  occasion.  It  has  been 
the  business  of  my  life  for  now  near  thirty  years  to  speak  in  public,  both 
in  the  pursuit  of  my  profession  and  for  other  purposes  of  a  kindred  public 
nature,  but  I  never  felt  that  I  was  more  out  of  place,  or  that  I  had  a  task 
assigned  to  me  that  I  was  less  able  to  accomplish,  than  that  of  speaking 
to  this  object  and  before  this  remarkable  assemblage  of  ladies  and  gentle 
men.  We  have  been  gathered  in  from  the  cities  on  the  sea,  from  the 
large  inland  towns  of  the  Middle  and  WTestern  States,  from  the  great 
metropolis  on  the  banks  of  the  Father  of  Waters,  from  the  new  cities  that 
have  sprung  to  life  in  the  wilderness  as  if  by  the  stroke  of  a  necromancer's 
wand,  and  here  we  are  in  this  large  tent  far  out  on  the  plains  beyond  the 
geographical  centre  of  the  continent,  attended  by  the  brave  general  offi 
cers  and  soldiers  who  have  saved  our  country — protected  and  cheered  by 
our  flag,  that  brilliant  symbol  of  our  nation's  glory  ami  renown.  Here  we 
are,  where  one  year  ago  a  hurricane  of  buffaloes  enveloped  the  plains  with 
clouds  of  dust,  and  made  the  earth  quake  with  their  fierce  charges — here 
we  are,  after  only  six  day's  journey,  almost  beneath  the  shadow  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  with  a  gigantic  railway  marching  on  to  the  shores  of 
the  Pacific.  To  speak  to  you  of  this  enterprise  of  uniting  the  two  oceans 
by  an  iron  way,  and  in  so  speaking  to  convey  to  the  minds  of  a  whole 
people  a  proper  conception  of  this  majestic  work,  is  the  object  of  this 
meeting.  We  were  brought  here  to  see  and  then  to  testify;  and  this  is 
the  first  occasion  on  which  we  are  called  to  bear  witness.  Properly  to  say 
all  that  we  feel  and  to  describe  all  that  we  have  seen  would  hardly  be 
within  the  power  of  words.  To  express  the  whole  train  of  reflection  that 
these  sights  have  excited  would  carry  us  back  to  those  days  when  America 
was  unknown.  We  would  have  to  look  back  beyond  1492  and  remember 
what  European  civilization  was  then,  and  what  savage  America  was  then. 
Reaching  that,  we  shall,  step  by  step,  with  hurried  strides,  sweep  on  to 
where  we  now  are;  see  and  feel  what  grand  things  we  have  done,  and  what 
grander  things  we  are  doing  when  we  have  thus  subdued  this  wilderness, 
and  created  a  higher  and  nobler  civilization  than  Europe  ever  knew.  Our 
great  works  are  such  as  these.  We  boast  no  conquests  over  subjugated 
people  or  subverted  dynasties.  We  exhibit  no  decorated  capitals  or  marble 
palaces,  to  build  which  a  million  peasants  starved.  We  show  a  continent 
filled  with  a  happy,  prosperous,  honest  people,  and  show  works  of  engi- 


neering  the  like  of  which  the  world  never  before  exhibited  in  boldness  of 
conception  or  skill  in  execution.  These  public  works,  after  all,  are  the 
only  true  monuments  of  a  nation's  career  and  signalize  the  national  genius. 
In  other  countries,  and  in  all  ages,  they  have  been  constructed  by  public 
authority  and  at  vast  cost.  They  commemorated  the  reigns  of  great 
sovereigns,  but  testified  to  the  subjection  of  the  people.  Here  private 
enterprise  and  bold  public  spirit  prompts  individuals  to  attempt  and  effect 
that  which  in  other  nations  is  done  by  monarchs  alone.  Companies  of 
heroic  adventurers  in  free  commonwealths  have  oftentimes  perfected  that 
which  the  treasury  of  an  empire  could  not  have  achieved.  Think  for  a 
moment  of  the  great  commercial  enterprises,  vast  manufactories,  and  stu 
pendous  public  works  that  have  made  England  all  that  she  is,  and  remem 
ber  that  they  were  all  made  by  private  citizens,  stimulated  by  a  bold  spirit 
and  a  sense  of  public  duty.  It  made  England  a  glowing  planet  in  a  sky 
filled  with  glimmering  nationalities.  It  was  because  her  institutions  were 
of  the  nature  of  a  free  commonwealth  and  because  her  laws  acknowledged 
individual  right,  above  all  royal  or  aristocratic  privileges,  and  thus  stimu 
lated  the  subject  to  deeds  of  more  than  royal  dignity  or  noble  daring. 
While  I  thus  casually  invite  your  reflections  to  this  train  of  thought,  let 
us  not  leave  it,  but  look  still  further  back — look  to  the  free  commonwealths 
of  the  great  past:  look  to  Athens  in  her  glory,  intellectual  and  political; 
look  to  Carthage :  look  to  Rome :  look  to  Venice  and  Genoa :  look  to  the 
free  cities  of  the  continent  in  the  Middle  Ages;  look  to  Holland,  that  rose 
from  the  sea  and  crowned  herself  with  jewels,  "the  wealth  of  Ormus  or 
of  Ind,"  the  result  of  her  free  institutions  and  her  free  spirit,  that  fostered 
individual  enterprise  and  protected  individual  gains;  and  then  let  us  look 
at  our  glory  and  our  grandeur,  and  say  if  all  these  things  were  not  the 
fruit  of  free  institutions,  that  recognized  and  protected  liberty  of  con 
science,  the  right  of  private  judgment,  and  freedom  of  speech.  All 
history  in  the  past,  as  well  as  our  grand  example,  cries  out,  Yes!  yes  ! 
All  this  has  been  given,  and  more  will  be  added  in  the  great  future  that 
lies  before  such  a  people.  Now  let  me  here,  in  this  rambling  and  desul 
tory  fashion,  follow  these  thoughts  in  another  direction.  I  have  said  that 
these  great  works  are  the  only  monuments  of  a  nation's  history,  and  are 
typical  of  its  genius.  Are  they  not  also  the  only  living  evidence  handed 
to  posterity  of  its  civilization  ?  Let  us  think  for  a  minute  of  Egypt,  with 
her  Pyramids,  of  which  the  great  Napoleon  said,  with  inspiring  words : 
u  Soldiers,  from  the  top  of  yon  Pyramids  forty  centuries  look  down  upon 
you,"  and  Jerusalem,  with  her  majestic  temple  to  the  great  Jehovah, 


Athens,  with  her  Parthenon  and  her  statuary,  almost  divine  in  its  beauty 
and  force  of  expression,  and  her  sublime  works  of  architecture,  beyond 
which  the  skill  of  all  succeeding  generations  has  never  gone  nor  ever  will 
go,  and  her  great  works  of  public  usefulness  :  China,  with  her  stupen 
dous  wall  and  her  vast  canals;  Babylon,  the  city  of  the  plains,  the  city  of 
Semiramis  and  of  Nitocris,  with  her  enormous  defences,  her  immense 
wall  with  its  hundred  brazen  gates,  and  its  mighty  rivers  flowing  through 
it,  controlled  and  directed  by  superhuman  engineering  skill — her  temple 
of  Belus,  her  sumptuous  palaces,  her  hanging  gardens,  in  all  their  fabu 
lous  luxury  and  splendor;  India,  with  her  huge,  mysterious  temples  and 
her  vast  palaces,  grotesque  and  florid  with  their  Oriental  grandeur ;  Rome, 
with  her  temples,  her  columns,  her  Capitol,  her  majestic  ways  stretching 
out,  as  our  ways  stretch  out,  into  the  savage  wilds ;  her  aqueducts,  her 
Coliseum,  and  her  theatres;  Gothic  Europe,  rising  from  the  night  of 
Gothic  desolation,  humanized  by  the  superhuman  and  mysterious  power 
of  Christian  faith,  and  leaving  as  the  trace  of  its  only  thoughts  the  insti 
tutions  of  feudality  and  the  sublime  cathedrals  and  minsters  that  to  this 
day  astound  all  beholders,  and  which  men  can  hardly  imitate,  and  never 
can  improve  or  excel.  The  first  evidence  of  modern  civilization  after 
these  grand  pietistic  achievements  of  a  race  of  awakened  savages,  inspired 
by  the  sublime  power  of  a  divine  faith,  were  the  canals  of  France  and 
Italy — the  works  of  architecture  and  art  that  make  glorious  Rome — not 
Rome  of  the  Empire  and  Conquest,  but  Rome  of  the  Holy  Church  of 
Christianity,  And  Holland — not  the  Batavians  and  the  brutish  inhabi 
tants  of  her  fens,  but  the  Christianized  bold  thinkers  of  her  heroic 
Church,  faithful  to  God  and  lovers  of  liberty — Holland,  herself  a  country 
every  inch  of  which  was  rescued  from  the  sea  by  stupendous  works  of 
engineering  skill.  Think,  too,  of  the  remnants  of  architecture  that  lie 
scattered  in  the  far  off  wildernesses  of  South  and  Central  America,  and 
the  works  with  which  Mexico  was  adorned  when  Cortez  invaded  it  with  his 
brutal  soldiery,  and  the  huge  temples  that  towered  in  majestic  grandeur 
when  Pizarro,  with  his  handful  of  adventurers,  cast  down  the  idol  of  the 
Inca  and  exalted  the  cross.  Think  of  all  this,  and  we  must  say  that  so  it 
is  that  nations  only  perpetuate  their  names.  They  give  us  these  works 
and  monuments;  facts  that  testify  to  their  being  and  their  thinking.  All 
else  is  tradition  and  conjecture.  Let  us,  then,  hope  that  we  shall  continue 
as  we  began,  with  temples  to  God,  erected  by  wealth,  with  works  of 
public  usefulness  constructed  by  private  enterprise  and  with  private 
means,  but  fostered  by  liberal  public  donations.  In  the  beginning,  here, 


the  States  were  obliged  to  embark  in  these  works,  but  even  then,  when 
the  necessities  of  a  young  people  required  the  power  of  the  State  to  con 
struct  them — even  then  they  led  to  serious  and  dangerous  abuses,  and 
with  the  wisdom  that  characterizes  the  practical  working  of  free  insti 
tutions,  they  were  abandoned,  and  the  State  only  intervened  to  encourage 
and  protect,  as  the  Government  should  intervene  here  to  encourage  by 
generous  donation  to  aid  this  stupendous  work.  Our  great  enterprises 
cover  the  face  of  our  nation :  our  coast  is  studded  with  safe  harbors,  where 
natural  advantages  have  been  improved  by  science  and  art:  our  inland 
rivers  have  been  made  navigable ;  canals  connect  streams  and  open  ways 
to  market;  railroads  leap  our  valleys,  and  pierce  our  mountains,  and  bind 
us  with  bands  of  iron.  We  would  have  been  long  since  divided  in  dis 
cord  had  it  not  been  for  their  facilities  and  for  their  social  influence. 
Here  I  will  venture  to  affirm  that  had  we  not  been  connected  by  these 
iron  ways  we  never  could  have  overcome  the  late  wicked  and  bloody  re 
bellion.  By  these  iron  links  we  were  united  in  the  bonds  of  affection, 
and  association — the  descendants  of  the  emigrants  to  the  West  and  the 
people  of  their  fathers  in  the  East.  Thus  were  they  kept  together  in  one 
common  cause  more  strongly  because  they  were  bound  by  the  sympathies 
of  a  common  pedigree.  Iron  ways  prevented  isolation;  iron  ways  invited 
intercourse;  iron  ways  gave  facilities  for  commercial,  social  and  political 
community  of  feeling  and  thought,  and  that  made  the  East,  the  North, 
the  Middle,  and  the  West,  as  one  people  to  subdue  a  rebellious  and 
stiff-necked  generation,  who  had  with  fierce  impiety  raised  their  bloody 
hands  against  the  life  of  our  common  country. 

It  was  the  old  fight  of  the  Puritan  and  the  Cavalier.  The  South,  filled 
with  another  race  of  men — men  descended  from  the  followers  of  Charles 
and  his  kingly  tyrannies,  and  believers  in  Hobbes  and  Sir  Robert  Filmer 
and  their  despotic  doctrines — the  South,  that  kept  alive  a  bondage  more 
cruel  than  the  Spartan  helots  or  Roman-Saxon  serfdom  or  slavery,  the 
vassalage  of  feudality — the  South,  gay,  prodigal,  luxurious,  cruel,  and 
tyrannical — the  South  made  one  last  effort  on  this  continent  to  regain 
that  which  the  Cavalier  had  lost  at  Marston  Moor,  now  two  centuries 
gone — the  supremacy  of  caste  and  the  degradation  and  subjugation  of 
labor.  The  North,  peopled  by  Puritans  and  by  Reformers  from  Germany 
and  persecuted  men  from  Ireland,  true  to  the  instincts  of  their  lineage 
and  the  traditions  of  their  ancestors,  stood  by  liberty  and  law,  and  en 
forced  obedience  to  the  latter,  that  it  might  for  the  dignity  of  the  human 
race  transmit  the  former  to  a  world  of  freemen  and  to  millions  yet  unborn. 


This  great  victory,  under  God's  Providence,  we  owe  to  the  civilizing,  in 
fluence  of  our  commercial  and  social  relations,  kept  alive  and  made  strong 
by  those  vast  iron  ways  that  bound  us  together.  May  we  not  rather  say 
that  it  was  we  of  the  North  and  West  who  were  civilized  and  elevated 
by  the  political  and  social  principles  of  equality  and  justice,  of  religious 
liberty  and  civil  liberty,  and  that  one  of  the  first  results  of  those  princi 
ples  was  to  instigate  these  works  that  represent  our  genius  as  they  have 
helped  to  make  our  history  illustrious  ?  For  a  long  while  in  this  careless 
way  can  we  go  on  thinking  and  speculating  over  these  inviting  subjects 
of  recollection  and  reflection;  but  I  must  pause,  and  here  end  my  discourse. 
Before  I  do  that,  let  me  ask  you  now  to  think  not  of  the  past  but  of  the 
future — to  think  of  what  will  be  the  result  of  this  majestic  and  almost 
superhuman  enterprise.  What  will  this  Pacific  Railway  do  for  us  as  a 
people,  and  as  the  missionaries  and  propagandists  of  free  institutions? 
What  will  it  do  for  our  wealth  and  prosperity?  What  will  it  do  to 
spread  the  blessings  of  comfort  and  relieve  the  fierce  fight  that  men  have 
to  make  to  earn  a  mere  subsistence — to  lift  the  laborer  above  the  grade 
of  a  social  slave  to  the  level  of  a  freemen  ?  We  are  on  our  way  to  India. 
Think  of  it.  Think  of  how  all  nations  have  struggled  to  reach  that  far-off" 
treasury  of  wealth.  From  the  remotest  antiquity  the  then  great  warriors 
went  in  their  bloody  track  of  conquest  and  rapine.  Alexander  the  Great 
and  his  hosts,  with  the  Macedonian  phalanx,  went  there;  the  Roman  co 
horts  and  their  eagles  spread  far,  far  away  in  the  march  to  India.  The 
Crusaders  were  but  another  symptom  of  that  same  desire  to  possess  the 
wealth  and  luxuries  of  the  East  for  the  impoverished  West;  and  Venice, 
and  Genoa,  and  all  of  the  large  cities  of  Germany  that  rose  up  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  were  enriched  by  the  very  drippings  of  the  caravans  that 
toiled  from  the  far-off  India  over  those  warlike  regions  in  those  dark  and 
troublous  days.  The  search  for  the  way  to  India  led  Yasco  de  Gama 
around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  raised  an  insignificant  people,  the 
Portuguese,  to  the  first  commercial  rank  in  Europe,  and  made  Goa  and 
Lisbon  centres  of  commercial  wealth  and  financial  power.  Holland,  too, 
from  poverty  became  a  treasury  of  riches.  England  owes  all  of  her  mo 
dern  power,  and  all  of  her  untold  millions  of  gold,  and  all  of  her  miracu 
lous  commercial  supremacy  to  the  possession  of  "turbaned  India  with  her 
jewelled  front."  Russia,  from  a  wild  race  of  barbarous  Tartars,  without 
outlet  to  the  sea,  has  become  a  mighty  empire,  advancing  in  wealth  and 
civilization,  and  all  because  of  her  direct  connection  with  Oriental  com 
merce. 


"Whoever  possesses  the  road  to  India,  possesses  the  commerce  of  India, 
and  holds  the  wealth  of  the  world  at  its  command.  France  felt  this  to  be 
so,  and  she  once  ruled  from  the  river  Kistna  to  Cape  Comorin,  and,  in  her 
name,  Duplex  reigned  there  with  the  wealth  and  power  of  a  potentate. 
She  intrigued  and  she  fought  for  it,  and  she  lost  it  with  Pondicherry, 
when  the  genius  of  Clive  rose  triumphant,  and  for  it  she  sent  Napoleon 
to  Egypt.  Russia  feels  it,  and  she  marches  on  to  Constantinople.  France 
still  feels  it,  and  she  strives  for  power  in  Egypt  to  this  day,  and  constructs 
her  canal  on  the  Isthmus.  We  know  it,  and  we  open  intercourse  with 
Japan.  We  make  treaties  with  China,  and  we  make  this  iron  track  over 
our  own  continent  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  across  which  our  own  steamers 
will  yet  bear  to  us  the  accumulated  wealth  of  ages,  and  we  will  distribute 
to  Europe  the  spices,  and  the  gems,  the  perfumes,  and  the  potent  drugs 
of  that  marvelous  and  mysterious  treasury  of  God's  greatest  and  rarest 
gifts.  We  will  adorn  your  ladies  with  these  trophies  of  our  commercial 
enterprise.  We  will  lay  at  your  feet  these  brilliant  jewels,  these  luxurious 
fabrics  of  silk,  and  wool,  and  cotton;  these  brocades — these  priceless 
shawls — these  delicate  fabrics  of  cotton  of  fairy-like  fineness  and  beauty. 
We  will  make  your  dwellings  aromatic  with  the  sweet  perfumes  of  their 
flowers  and  their  scented  woods.  All  these  we  will  bring  to  you,  and  the 
daughters  of  America  shall  be  clothed  as  queens  even  were  not;  and  shall, 
to  the  beauty  of  their  persons,  the  refinement  and  graces  of  their  educa 
tion,  add  the  elegancies  of  attire  that  have  before  this  been  the  mono 
polized  privilege  of  the  wealthy  and  titled  few.  Again  I  say,  whoever 
possesses  the  way  to  India,  possessess  the  commercial  wealth  of  the  world ; 
and  here  we  have  it,  and,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  let  us  keep  it  and  use 
it,  and  not  abuse  it.  Let  us  do  all  that  we  can  to  aid  this  great  instru 
ment  of  civilization;  for  I  hold  that  all  of  our  resources  must  be  thus 
applied  to  elevate,  refine,  embellish  life,  and  exalt  and  humanize  the  race. 
They  must  be  for  the  public  good,  and  not  for  private  aggrandizement; 
for  the  true  philosophy  of  our  political  creed  is  to  distribute  wealth  so  as 
to  improve  and  exalt  the  whole,  not  to  accumulate  fortunes,  to  enervate 
the  few,  and  debase  and  impoverish  the  many.  Before  I  shall  be  done, 
permit  me  to  thank  you  for  your  kind  attention;  and  as  I  shall  soon  say 
good-bye  and  start  on  my  way  East  before  the  rest  of  you,  let  me  also  add 
how  happy  I  have  been  in  you  gracious  and  courteous  society.  Here  we 
are  gathered  in  from  all  parts,  strangers  to  each  other,  traveling  together 
by  night  and  by  day  for  a  week,  and  yet  not  one  incident  has  occurred  to 
disturb  the  harmony  and  happiness  of  this  large  party.  Where  could 


this  have  happened  but  in  this  country  and  with  this  people?  We  owe 
it  to  our  civilization  that  we  dare  thus  to  invite  persons  from  all  occupa 
tions  of  life,  and  feel  asured  that  there  will  be  but  one  grade,  and  that 
grade  the  grade  of  lady  and  gentlemen.  Ladies,  adieu;  from  you  I  have 
received  such  never-ceasing  evidence  of  courtesy  and  refined  acceptance 
that  I  feel  touched  at  the  thought  that  I  must  now  say  adieu,  and  perhaps 
forever.  To  you  we  owe  all  that  has  given  a  grace  to  this  adventure. 
You  have  been  its  light  and  its  joy,  as  you  are  the  darlings  of  our  hearts 
and  our  homes.  Gentlemen,  let  us  reverence  and  honor  and  love  woman. 
She  is  our  mother,  our  wife,  our  daughter,  our  sister,  our  pretty  cousin, 
and  our  sweetheart.  God  bless  her !  Adieu,  ladies.  Adieu,  gentlemen. 
May  we  meet  again,  but  if  we  do  not  we  will  each  cherish  the  happy 
recollection  of  joyful,  innocent  days  spent  on  the  Plains  of  our  mighty 
country,  cheering  this  work  and  testifying  to  the  success  of  the  greatest 
enterprise  of  the  age — the  opening  of  the  highway  to  India. 


49 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  G.  S.  ORTH,  M.C.,  OF  INDIANA. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  We  have  reached  the  western  limit  of  our 
excursion,  and  will  soon  retrace  our  footsteps.  To  say  that  thus  far  we 
have  been  exceedingly  gratified,  is  but  a  feeble  expression  of  the  senti 
ment  which  I  feel  satisfied  pervades  the  breast  of  every  one  within  the 
sound  of  my  voice. 

We  are  indebted  to  the  generous  hospitality  of  Mr.  Perry,  the  ener 
getic  President  of  this  road,  and  to  those  associated  with  him,  for  the 
opportunity  of  visiting  these  new  and  interesting,  and  hitherto  almost 
unexplored  regions.  We  have  been  furnished  with  every  convenience 
which  could  contribute  to  our  comfort,  and  every  facility  for  our  intelli 
gent  appreciation  of  the  country  through  which  we  have  passed,  as  also  the 
importance  of  this  great  work  in  which  the  nation  is  so  deeply  interested, 
and  to  the  completion  of  which,  its  faith  is  so  solemnly  pledged.  (Applause.) 

So  rapidly  have  we  passed  from  the  more  densely  populated  portions  of  our 
country;  from  its  cities  teeming  with  all  the  evidences  of  advanced 
civilization;  from  its  rivers  and  its  railroads,  busy  with  the  travel  and  the 
commerce  of  millions  of  our  countrymen,  to  this  edge  of  the  "American 
Desert;"  and  so  new  and  varied  has  been  our  experience,  like  the  shifting 
scenes  of  a  beautiful  panorama,  that  our  minds  are  almost  bewildered, 
while  our  hearts  are  full  of  the  emotions  that  all  this,  too,  is  part  and 
parcel  of  "our  own,  our  native  land." 

Standing  under  the  shadow  of  Fort  Harker,  from  whose  battlements 
floats  the  glorious  standard  of  the  free;  surrounded  by  brave  officers  and 
men,  soldiers  of  the  great  Republic,  who  periled  life  that  the  nation  might 
live;  in  the  very  heart  of  the  continent,  (cheers),  with  ladies  and  gentle 
men  from  at  least  one-half  of  the  States  of  our  Union — there  is  everything 
in  the  contemplation  of  the  past,  the  present  and  the  future,  to  inspire 
love  of  country  and  renewed  devotion  to  the  cause  of  universal  freedom 
and  humanity.  (Long  continued  applause.) 

Where  we  stand  to-day,  the  Indian  and  the  buffalo  but  a  few  days  ago 
held  undisputed  sway,  while  the  not  distant  morrow  will  witness  their 
departure  to  wilder  scenes  and  more  inaccessible  recesses. 

Our  good  "Uncle  Sam"  has  come  here,  and  he  brings  with  him  science 
and  civilization,  and  he  intends  to  plant  permanently  a  part  of  his  great 
family;  for  he  is  now  founding  empires,  and  his  mission  will  not  be  ful 
filled  on  this  continent  until  every  foot  of  its  soil  will  acknowledge  his 
dominion  and  his  power.  (Applause.) 

Less  than  twenty  years  ago,  the  project  of  a  railroad  uniting  the  Atlan 
tic  with  the  Pacific  was  regarded  by  our  most  practical  business  men  as 


50 

chimerical,  while  to-day  we  look  with  amazement,  even  in  this  fast  age, 
when  scarcely  anything  amazes  us,  upon  the  rapidity  with  which  this 
great  work  approaches  completion.  The  Pacific  Railroad  has  become  a 
political  necessity,  and  our  Government,  even  if  such  a  thought  were 
harbored,  cannot  now  recede  from  lending  such  material  aid  as  will,  under 
wise  and  judicious  management,  accomplish  its  completion  at  the  earliest 
practicable  period. 

Our  vast  possessions  on  the  Pacific  coast — including  that  valuable  do 
main  recently  acquired  from  Russia — our  territorial  interests,  stretching 
from  the  British  possessions  on  the  north  to  the  Republic  of  Mexico  on 
the  south — the  peopling  of  these  territories  and  the  development  of  their 
untold  mineral  wealth;  this  vast  inland  commerce — "the  commerce  of 
the  plains," — already  greater  than  that  of  many  of  the  older  nations  of 
the  world — whose  " wagon  covers"  now  whiten  these  prairies,  and  soon 
destined  to  be  increased  a  thousand  fold,  all,  all  demand  the  speedy  com 
pletion  of  this  road.  And  when  you  add  to  these  considerations  the  trade 
of  the  great  East,  of  Japan,  of  Asia,  of  the  rich  isles  of  the  Pacific, 
which  will  seek  a  market  over  this  route,  you  have  opened  to  you  results 
which  the  wildest  imagination  can  hardly  grasp. 

The  progress  and  completion  of  this  work  will  also  tend  to  solve  politi 
cal  problems  which  have  troubled,  and  do  yet  trouble,  the  wisest  states 
manship.  The  Territory  of  Utah,  with  its  one  hundred  thousand  deluded 
human  beings — with  its  mis-named  religion,  a  shame  and  a  blot  upon  our 
fair  name — will  be  pierced  and  crossed  by  the  Pacific  Railroad,  bringing 
in  its  train  and  scattering  along  its  track  a  hardy,  vigorous,  self-reliant 
people,  who  by  their  influence  and  example  will  dispel  the  delusion  of  the 
many,  and  destroy  the  power  of  priestcraft  wielded  by  the  few,  anji  thus 
the  cause  of  Mormonisrn,  which  now  alike  defies  the  authority  of  the  law 
and  outrages  the  moral  sense  of  the  Christian  world,  will  disappear,  to  be 
remembered  only  as  among  the  disagreeable  and  disgusting  things  of  the 
past. 

The  wild  Indian,  who  stands  in  the  pathway  of  civilization,  must  adopt 
the  habits  and  pursuits  of  civilized  life,  or  cease  to  exist.  These  vast  and 
beautiful  fertile  plains  can  no  longer  remain  mere  waste  places,  on  which 
the  savage  is  to  indulge  his  slothful  ease,  or  gratify  his  baser  passions; 
these  plains  are  part  of  God's  footstool,  and  subject  to  the  divine  com 
mand  to  man  "to  replenish  it  and  subdue  it." 

These  plains  and  valleys  and  yonder  mountain  sides  are  to  be  the  abodes 
of  industry,  of  law  and  order,  and  of  science  and  civilization.  They  are 
to  be  dotted  over  with  happy  homes,  teeming  fields  and  busy  marts  of 
commerce.  This  wilderness  shall  soon  blossom  as  the  rose  and  the  days 


51 

of  war-whoop  and  scalpiug-knife,  of  Indian  treaties,  broken  as  rapidly  as 
made;  the  days  of  illicit  Indian  traffic,  of  swindling  Indian  agents  and 
agencies,  of  civilized  robbers  and  barbaric  murder,  shall  cease,  and  every 
good  man  will  say  Amen  !  (Loud  applause.) 

Another  equally  interesting  problem  will  be  materially  affected  by  the 
completion  of  this  road.  I  refer  to  the  future  of  Mexico.  Our  neigh 
boring  Republic  has  been  wasted  for  years  with  intestine  broils,  the 
sport  of  daily  "pronunciamentos."  and  the  concomitant  brigandage,  and  is 
now  heroically  struggling  against  the  establishment  of  a  despotism  which 
European  monarchists  are  vainly  endeavoring  to  force  upon  her  people. 
By  these  dissensions  and  wars  the  energies  of  her  people  have  become 
paralyzed  and  their  property  ruined  and  destroyed.  Nature  has  blessed 
that  country  with  a  superabundance  of  her  choicest  gifts,  with  climate  and 
soil  and  mineral  wealth  far  above  that  of  almost  any  other  nation.  For 
the  enjoyment  of  these  bounties  the  Mexican  people  require  a  stable 
government.  They  need  rest.  Peace  is  their  great  want.  And  with 
peace  will  come  law  and  order  and  safety,  and  the  development  of  her 
vast  mineral  and  agricultural  resources.  With  peace,  she  will  be  able  to 
contribute  her  portion  to  the  world's  wealth  and  the  world's  prosperity. 
A  stronger  alliance  with  our  government  and  a  more  extended  commerce 
with  our  people  will  do  much  to  bring  this  result.  The  Mexican  Repub 
lic  is  our  neighbor,  and  we  are  deeply  interested  in  her  existence  and  her 
prosperity.  We  must  see  to  it  that  no  European  agency  shall  be  permit 
ted  to  rob  her  people,  despoil  her  fair  fields,  or  change  her  Republican 
form  of  Government.  (Applause.) 

In  view  of  these  facts — so  hastily  glanced  at  and  so  imperfectly 
brought  to  view — I  submit  to  you,  Mr.  Perry,  as  President  of  the  East 
ern  Division  of  the  Pacific  Railroad,  whether  you  are  not  about  reaching 
that  point  in  your  route  when  a  Southern  detour  becomes  necessary? 
Should  you  not  at  once  reach  out  the  iron  arm  of  your  road  and  grasp  the 
rich  valleys  of  the  Rio  Grande  and  its  tributaries  ? 

Should  you  not  furnish  an  artery  for  the  vast  commerce  of  Northern 
Mexico,  an  outlet  for  her  mineral  wealth,  which  equals  in  richness  the 
best  veins  of  Nevada  and  Montana?  And  not  only  an  outlet  for  Mexico 
and  Mexican  products,  but  as  a  necessary  consequence  a  market,  rich  and 
profitable,  for  the  products  of  American  skill,  energy  and  industry.  (Ap 
plause.) 

But  I  shall  detain  this  audience  no  longer — there  are  others  here  bet 
ter  qualified  than  myself  to  interest  and  instruct  you  upon  this  occasion. 
(Long  continued  applause.) 


52 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  W.  E.  NIBLACK,  OF  INDIANA. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — Of  course  I  could  not  decline  appearing 
before  you  to-day  in  response  to  the  call  of  our  distinguished  Chairman. 
I  can  say  with  truth,  that  I  came,  upon  this  occasion,  to  see  and  to  ob 
serve,  and  without  any  thought  of  being  called  out  to  talk  for  the  attempted 
edification  of  others.  There  are  many  things  connected  with  this  excur 
sion  of  peculiar  interest  to  me;  there  are  many  things  connected  with  the 
State  of  Kansas,  in  which  we  now  are,  which  recall  to  me  the  scenes  of 
other  days.  When  I  first  entered  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
now  near  ten  years  since,  Kansas  was  the  theme  of  almost  every  tongue, 
and,  practically,  absorbed  all  other  questions.  I  was  frequently  called 
upon  to  vote  on  different  phases  of  her  political  affairs;  and,  finally,  had 
the  honor  of  voting  to  make  her  one  of  the  States  of  this  Union.  [Cheers.] 
I  am  one  of  a  very  few  members  of  the  present  Congress,  who  can  claim 
this  honor;  most  of  those  who  participated  in  her  admission,  have  either 
retired  from  public  life,  or  been  swept  down  by  the  swift  course  of  mighty 
events  which  have  since  intervened.  I  confess,  therefore,  that  it  was 
with  some  emotion  that  I  entered  the  borders  of  this  State  the  other  day; 
for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  and  looked  out  upon  her  broad  plains  and 
fertile  prairies.  As  much  as  I  have  heard  said  and  seen  written  con 
cerning  these,  I  was  not  quite  prepared  to  see  such  beautiful  scenery  and 
so  grand  a  country.  Had  I  the  power  of  painting  scenery,  as  only  a 
master  hand  can  paint  it,  I  ieel  that  I  still  could  not  make  a  picture  so 
beautiful  as  much  that  I  have  seen.  The  grandeur  would,  at  least,  be 
wanting. 

I  shall  return,  as  I  doubt  not  others  will,  who  live  East  of  the  Missis 
sippi,  with  impressions  as  to  the  scenery  and  country  now  around  us, 
which  will  never  be  effaced.  I  shall  return,  too,  under  the  impression 
that  the  Eastern  Division  of  the  great  Union  Pacific  Railroad  is  in  the 
possession  of  the  right  men,  and  that  each  man  is  in  his  right  place. 
[Cheers.]  I  will  ever  bear  with  me  the  kindest  recollections  of  the  cour 
tesies  and  hospitalities,  which  have  been  so  profusely  extended  to  us. 
What  I  have  seen  of  the  country  West  of  the  Mississippi,  has  more  than 
ever  impressed  me  with  the  practicability  of  reaching  the  Pacific  Ocean 
by  railroad,  and  with  the  grandeur  of  the  enterprise.  From  its  geo 
graphical  location,  if  for  no  other  reason,  the  Eastern  Division  of  this 
great  work,  must  ever  be  a  favorite  route  with  those  amongst  whom  I  live. 
Come  what  will,  then,  I  don't  want  to  see  it  fail.  [Cheers.]  Whatever 
therefore,  I  can,  in  conscience  and  honor,  do  to  forward  it,  I  will,  I  hope, 
feel  ever  ready  to  do.  [Cheers,]  Of  course  I  do  not  desire  to  see  this 


53 

road  pressed  forward  in  any  way  that  shall  be  injurious  to  other  routes. 
I  wish  to  see  the  Government  extend  a  fostering  hand,  to  the  extent  of 
its  ability  and  power,  to  all  kindred  enterprises.  There  is  room  for  many 
routes  to  the  Pacific,  and  there  is  little  danger,  I  imagine,  that  too  many 
will  be  constructed. 

If  I  shall  live  to  see  the  day  when  this  road  is  completed,  I  am  quite 
sure  that  no  ordinary  emergency  would  induce  me  to  decline  an  invitation 
for  another  and  more  grand  excursion  to  the  Pacific  coast.  If  I  shall  not 
have  the  honor  of  an  invitation  on  that  occasion,  then  I  shall  desire  the 
privilege  of  buying  a  ticket;  for  I  shall  feel  inclined  to  go  in  some  way 
that  shall  be  agreeable.  [Laughter  and  cheers.] 

SPEECH  OF  HON.  A.  H.  STEVENS,  M.C.,  OF  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

I  do  not  know,  Mr.  Chairman,  how  I  can  do  justice  to  this  occasion  and 
this  presence  in  a  speech  of  five  minutes.  Such  a  space,  sir,  furnishes  us 
with  scarce  time  for  personal  compliments,  much  less  for  the  expression  of 
those  sentiments  which  this  successful  trip  to  the  heart  of  the  Continent 
naturally  awakens  in  the  minds  of  all.  I  shall  not  attempt  it,  sir.  if  I 
could  emulate  the  Western  eloquence  to  which  we  have  just  listened,  I 
might  essay  the  trial,  though  animated  only  by  the  cold  and  frigid  spirit  of 
that  distant  North  from  which  I  come.  But  something  is  due  from  me 
in  response  to  your  call  upon  Eastern  men.  Yes,  sir,  there  are  due  from 
me,  (and  they  are  most  heartily  and  sincerely  yielded,)  my  thanks  to  the 
gentlemen  to  whom  we  are  all  indebted  for  the  uninterrupted  pleasure 
and  enjoyment  which  have  waited  on  us  during  this  long  and  rapid  jour 
ney  of  nearly  two  thousand  miles.  I  thank  them,  one  and  all,  for  myself  and 
mine.  May  the  enterprise  to  which  they  are  devoted  be  cherished  and 
prospered,  and  its  early  completion  bring  them  honor  and  wealth.  I  have 
alluded  to  what  Western  eloquence  can  accomplish,  and  these,  our  liberal 
and  hospitable  friends  have  taught  us  what  wonders  Western  enterprise, 
under  the  fostering  hand  of  a  generous  Government,  can  perfom.  And 
while  teaching  us  this  new  and  strange  lesson,  our  path  to  knowledge  has 
been  one  of  continued  pleasure  and  recreation.  The  ever-active  spirit  of 
care  and  anxiety  for  our  wants,  aye,  sir,  and  for  our  comfort,  and  luxury 
even,  the  security  of  travel,  the  wide  and  varied  expanse  of  territory 
which  has  greeted  our  flying  career,  the  fertility  and  grandeur  of  these 
States  of  our  common  country,  now  free,  and  forever  hereafter  devoted  to 
freedom,  with  the  presence  of  those  in  whose  absence  our  progress  would 
have  been  a  prairie  without  flowers,  all  stand  in  one  grand  picture,  whose 
very  diversity  is  its  harmony,  and  the  lights  of  which  will  awaken  memo 
ries  of  this  excursion  in  all  future  years 


54 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  possess  no  language  in  which  to  express  my  surprise 
and  delight  with  the  scenes  through  which  we  have  flown  in  our  progress 
from  the  sea,  and  by  which  we  are  surrounded  to-day.  Such  scenes 
can  never  fail  to  impress  most  vividly  the  feelings  and  imaginations  of 
those  who  visit  for  the  first  time  the  fertile  fields,  the  teeming  cities  and 
the  boundless  prairies  of  the  great  West.  In  my  own  little  but  gallant 
State,  we  are  accustomed  to  boast  of  natural  wonders,  which  attract  and 
repay  the  distant  traveler;  and  yet  for  myself  I  must  say  that  I  do 
not  believe  that  I  should  be  penetrated  by  greater  astonishment  than  has 
been  awakened  in  my  mind  by  this  grand  proscenium  of  the  continent 
over  which  our  progress  has  led  us,  if  on  my  return  I  should  find  the 
face  of  the  "Old  Man  of  the  Mountains"  wreathed  in  smiles,  or  behold 
Mount  Washington  nodding  his  imperial  head  in  stately  courtesy  to  these 
expansive  prairies. 

I  owe  the  pleasure  of  this  trip  to  the  call  of  personal  friendship  and  the 
curiosity  of  travel.  But  I  feel,  sir,,  that  it  has  not  been  without  its  prac 
tical  lesson,  or  its  real  benefits.  And  here,  sir,  on  the  very  centre  of  the 
continent,  on  the  historic  soil  of  Kansas — with  what  a  price  has  she  pur 
chased  her  liberty — I  am  free  to  say  that  I  recognise  the  utility,  yes  sir, 
the  future  necessity,  of  uniting  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  with  those  of 
the  great  Peaceful  Sea,  and  binding  together  the  industrial  East  with  the 
Golden  Grates  of  California,  by  those  iron  bands  which  in  the  future  are  to 
bear  the  burden  of  a  mighty  commerce  in  its  transit  across  the  continent. 
Against  all  obstacles  this  great  enterprise,  this  magnificent  scheme,  must 
go  forward  to  its  completion.  I  shall  be  glad  to  lend  my  personal  and  offi 
cial  aid  to  this  great  work.  I  hope  it  is  not  now  to  be  interrupted  by  war. 
I  trust  the  rising  cloud  of  Indian  hostilities  will  prove  a  cloud  only.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  this  work  must  go  forward.  While  the  peaceful  Indian 
can  rest  in  security  side  by  side  with  our  own  race,  the  warlike  savage, 
the  wild  and  untamed  and  untamable  Indian,  must  retire  before  the  ad 
vancing  tread  of  cultivation.  New  England  found  that  out  two  hundred 
years  ago.  Let  the  rest  profit  by  our  history,  let  the  country  mark  our 
example,  and  promptly  and  speedily  the  barbarities  of  the  Indian  and 
the  sensuality  of  the  Mormon,  shall  give  way  to  the  progress  of  civiliza 
tion,  commerce  and  Christianity. 

SPEECH  OF  HON.  A.  H.  LAFLIN,  OF  NEW  YORK. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: — I  feel  a  personal  pride 
in  the  success  which  has  crowned  the  efforts  of  this  great  Pacific  Rail 
way.  Coming,  as  I  do,  from  the  State  containing  within  its  borders  the 


55 

largest  number  of  people  in  any  of  the  glorious  States  of  this  great  Union 
— a  State  represented  by  a  wealth  and  a  commerce  of  which  we  may  be 
justly  proud;  a  State  which  has  felt,  from  its  very  infancy,  the  force  and 
effect  of  the  prosperity  of  the  section  of  country  beyond  it,  at  the  West, 
and  a  State,  too,  which  has  somewhat  distinguished  itself  by  its  works  of 
internal  improvement — I  may  say  that,  coming  from  that  State,  I  feel 
that  all  the  States  beyond  us,  at  the  West,  and  all  the  improvements 
which  have  developed  in  them,  are  part  and  parcel  of  our  own  system. 
When  we  remember  that  it  is  almost  within  the  lifetime  of  some  of  those 
who  are  before  us,  that  the  mighty  Empire  State,  now  numbering  within 
its  borders  four  millions  of  people,  had  a  population  little  exceeding 
the  present  population  of  the  territory  which  now  constitutes  the  State  of 
Kansas — which,  twelve  years  ago,  was  an  unknown  wilderness — we  are 
astonished  at  the  progress  which  our  country  has  made.  And  when  we 
bear  in  mind  that  in  a  few  more  years  this  State  of  Kansas,  containing 
within  its  borders  more  than  double  the  number  of  square  miles  of  the 
great  State  of  New  York,  and  possessing  far  more  of  the  elements  of  agri 
cultural  wealth,  will  also  count  its  million  of  inhabitants,  the  imagina 
tion  is  lost  in  wonder  at  the  teeming  millions  of  prosperous  people  who 
will  occupy  our  Great  Republic  of  America,  through  the  heart  of  which 
we  have  passed  on  this  journey.  Indeed,  there  are  persons  with  us, 
young  it  may  be,  who  will  scarcely  arrive  at  the  age  of  the  majority  of 
us,  who  will  see,  occupying  this  immense  territory  of  the  United  States, 
a  population  nearly  equal  to  one-twelfth  of  the  whole  population  of  the 
globe.  And  is  it  not  a  matter  of  pride,  should  it  not  be  a  matter  of  con 
gratulation,  that  those  who  are  the  pioneers,  those  who  are  to  lead  on 
ward  the  tide  of  immigration  and  of  population  which  is  bearing  West 
ward,  are  men  of  such  enterprise,  men  of  such  public  spirit,  and,  as  we 
can  all  testify,  men  of  such  eminent  private  virtue  and  ability,  as  those 
gentlemen  who  are  leading  on  the  enterprise  of  constructing  this  railroad 
through  to  the  Pacific?  Now,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  feel  it  my  duty 
to  testify  in  this  way  to  the  kind  recollection  which  I  shall  ever  cherish 
of  the  hospitality  and  of  the  generous  treatment  which  has  awaited  us 
since  the  commencement  of  our  journey ;  and  I  shall  always  remember 
this  visit  as  one  of  the  most  joyous  of  my  life. 

SPEECH  OF  HON.  B.  M.  KITCHEN,  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

MR.  PRESIDENT  : — I  received  an  invitation  from  the  honored  President 
of  this  road,  and  my  first  thought  was  that  I  could  not  accept  it,  for  I 
live  in  a  section  of  country  that  has  been  desolated  with  war;  our  people 


56 

have  been  impoverished,  trade  is  not  fully  re-established,  and  we  have 
not  yet  got  our  farms  straightened  up.  But  I  remembered  that  this  rail 
road  was  a  great  national  work;  and  having  the  honor  to  be  a  member  of 
the  Fortieth  Congress,  as  I  had  previously  been  of  the  Thirty-ninth,  I 
deemed  it  my  duty  to  inform  myself  upon  this  important  question,  that  I 
might  be  able  to  vote  understandingly;  so  I  made  up  my  mind  to  accom 
pany  the  party. 

I  have  now  seen  the  Far  West,  and  have  journeyed  through  beautiful 
and  fertile  prairies  more  than  half  across  this  wonderful  State  of  Kansas  . 
We  have  all  been  surprised  and  delighted  at  the  rapid  progress  made  in 
building  this  road,  and  amazed  at  the  beauty  and  richness  of  the  country 
throught  which  it  passes.  I  hope  soon  to  see  the  day  when  this  great 
railroad  will  be  pushed  on  to  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  had  I  the  voice  of 
the  thunder,  I  would  send  it  forth  into  the  world,  and  tell  those  who 
struggle  for  a  scanty  subsistence,  in  poor  and  desolate  countries,  the  op 
pressed  and  down-trodden  of  the  Old  World,  to  come  out  into  this  Great 
West,  where  rich  lands  may  be  had  for  little  money;  to  come  here  and 
help  to  build  up  our  Great  Republic !  help  to  push  forward  our  Christian 
civilization  to  the  confines  of  this  continent,  on  the  Western  Ocean ! 

SPEECH  OF  HON.  JOHN  A.  NICHOLSON.  OF  DELAWARE. 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — I  had  no  expectation  of 
being  called  upon  to  address  you  upon  this  occasion.  My  first  inclination 
would  have  prompted  me  to  have  avoided  the  danger;  nor  do  I  now  in 
tend  to  inflict  upon  you  a  speech,  but  I  would  be  doing  violence  to  my 
feelings  did  I  not  make  some  attempt  to  respond  to  the  call  which  has 
been  made.  I  should  exhaust  the  vocabulary  of  adjectives  in  any  effort 
I  should  make  fully  to  express  my  admiration  and  astonishment  at  all  I 
have  witnessed  since  I  left  the  Atlantic  coast;  and  you  will  perhaps  more 
fully  appreciate  my  astonishment  when  I  remark,  that  in  Delaware  there 
has  lingered,  perhaps  longer  than  in  any  of  the  Atlantic  States,  that  age 
of  patriarchal  simplicity,  of  which  poets  have  sung  as  the  golden  age, 
which  is  conducive  rather  to  the  virtues  of  her  people,  than  to  the  de 
velopment  of  that  energy  and  enterprise  which  result  in  great  works  of 
public  improvement.  I  have  been  amazed  at  the  stupendous  obstacles 
which  nature  has  interposed  in  the  pathway  of  human  enterprise;  but  no 
less  amazed  at  the  success  which  has  crowned  your  efforts  in  surmounting 
those  obstacles.  The  most  formidable  of  the  difficulties  you  have  had  to 
encounter  appears  to  me  to  have  been  immensity  of  distance — and  this  is 
vanishing  at  your  touch.  You  stagger  not  at  apparent  impossibilities ; 


57 

and  now  this  great  work  of  spanning  a  continent — the  progress  of  which 
we  have  been  brought  hither  to  witness — presents  every  assurance  of 
speedy  accomplishment. 

I  desire  to  extend  my  warmest  thanks  to  the  President,  Directors,  Offi 
cers  of  the  Road,  and  to  all  others  who  have  so  successfully  contributed 
to  our  pleasure  and  entertainment;  and  to  assure  them  that  I  shall  cher 
ish  this  as  one  of  the  sweetest  episodes  of  my  life,  the  remembrance  of 
which  will  follow  me  to  the  grave,  and  on  which  memory  will  delight  to 
linger.  I  appreciate  the  full  and  princely  hospitality  which  has  been  ex 
tended  to  us,  and  trust  that  many,  if  not  all  of  us,  may  soon  meet  upon 
another  excursion,  where  our  journey  shall  not  cease,  till,  through  the 
Golden  Gate,  we  behold  the  waters  of  the  Pacific. 

Short  speeches  were  also  delivered  by  Hon.  SIDNEY  CLARKE,  of  Kan 
sas,  Hon.  R.  T.  VAN  HORN  and  Hon.  C.  A.  NEWCOMB,  of  Missouri, 
Hon.  W.  E.  CHANDLER,  Assistant  Secretary  U.  S.  Treasury,  Hon.  Frank 
JOURDAN,  Secretary  of  State,  Pennsylvania,  Hon.  JAS.  S.  THOMAS, 
Mayor  of  St.  Louis,  and  others,  after  which  the  meeting  adjourned. 


SOME.  GENERAL   EEMAEKS 


UNION  PACIFIC  RAILWAY,  E.  D. 


It  is  a  fact  that  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  of  Kansas,  legally  designa 
ted  as  the  Eastern  Division,  is  so  happily  located,  that  it  accommodates 
all  portions  of  our  country  north  of  the  Potomac  and  the  Ohio  with  so 
near  an  approach  to  equality  that  it  is  impossible  to  say  which  side,  the 
North  or  the  South,  has  the  advantage.  That  the  distance  between  New 
York  and  Kansas  City,  by  one  system  of  railroads,  crossing  the  Missis 
sippi  at  St.  Louis,  should  differ  from  that  over  another  system,  crossing 
that  river  at  Quincy,  but  one  mile,  is  very  remarkable,  and  marks  this 
great  thoroughfare  across  the  continent,  not  as  a  sectional,  but  as  a  truly 
national  highway,  as  accessible  to  Massachusetts  as  to  Maryland;  to  the 
basin  of  the  Great  Lakes  as  to  the  Valley  of  the  Ohio. 

In  the  preceding  paragraph,  we  had  reference  solely  to  the  Eastern  ter 
minus  of  our  road,  which,  being  very  nearly  in  the  geographical  centre 
of  the  United  States,  is  quite  as  accessible  to  many  of  the  States  and 
Cities  south  of  the  Potomac  and  the  Ohio,  as  to  those  north  of  these 
rivers. 

But,  as  our  road  bears  southwardly,  as  proposed,  along  the  south-eastern 
slope  of  the  llocky  Mountain  system,  roads  from  Tennessee,  Mississippi, 
Arkansas,  Louisiana  and  Texas  can  be  projected  along  their  respective 
parallels,  and  unite  with  it  in  Colorado  and  New  Mexico.  All  that  will 
be  required  to  give  to  the  Southern  States,  whether  washed  by  the  Atlan 
tic,  the  Gulf  or  the  Mississippi,  direct  avenues  to  the  Pacific  coast,  or  to 
the  great  mining  region  drained  by  the  Colorado,  will  be  easily  con 
structed  roads  across  the  fertile  plains,  which  stretch  from  their  present 


60 

railroad  systems  to  the  main  line  of  our  road,  before  it  enters  upon  the 
mountainous  portion  of  the  continent.  Thus  it  will  bring,  as  it  were,  the 
coast  of  the  Pacific  to  the  border  of  the  great  plains  of  the  Mississippi 
valley.  Our  road  will  thus  become  a  grand  TRUNK  ROAD,  the  arms  of 
which  will  radiate  far  and  wide,  embracing  the  Atlantic  slope  and  the  val 
ley  of  the  Mississippi  at  one  end,  and  a  thousand  miles  of  the  Pacific 
coast  at  the  other. 

Under  the  existing  law  of  Congress,  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  of  the 
Kansas  (Eastern  Division),  is  required  to  form  a  junction  with  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  of  the  Platte,  at  some  point  not  exceeding  fifty  miles  west 
of  the  meridian  of  Denver.  The  company  have  no  desire  to  be  freed 
from  this  obligation,  and  it  is  their  intention  to  make  that  connection.  It 
will  be  of  great  value  to  the  whole  country,  and  add  largely  to  the  busi 
ness  of  the  road. 

But  they  are  fully  persuaded  that,  by  bearing  south-west,  from  some 
point  in  the  vicinity  of  Pond  Creek,  through  south-eastern  Colorado,  New 
Mexico,  Arizona  and  southern  California,  a  route  to  San  Francisco  can  be 
found  greatly  preferable  to  one  directly  across  the  tremendous  mountain 
systems — beginning  at  Denver,  and  only  ending  at  the  Sacramento,  with 
their  Alpine  heights  and  overwhelming  snows. 

The  company  has,  as  yet,  no  authority  of  law  for  carrying  their  road 
by  this  more  southern  route ;  but  they  will  ask  for  it,  and  they  feel  as 
sured  that,  when  the  fact  in  the  case  shall  be  fully  understood,  and  the 
incalculable  benefits  that  will  flow  from  the  construction  of  such  a  thor 
oughfare,  through  such  a  region,  shall  be  laid  before  Congress  and  the 
country,  that  there  will  be  no  hesitation  on  the  part  of  Congress  to  grant 
all  the  authority  and  aid  that  may  be  required. 

With  these  remarks,  we  proceed  to  trace,  in  brief  and  comprehensive 
terms,  our  proposed  route;  and  to  notice,  with  equal  brevity,  some  of  the 
resultant  benefits  which  would  flow  from  the  consummation  of  the  great 
enterprise. 

Passing  up,  directly  westward,  through  the  beautiful,  fertile  and  salu 
brious  valley  of  the  Kansas  and  Smoky  Hill,  to  Pond  Creek — 420  miles 
west  of  the  Missouri  river — the  route  deflects  to  the  south-west,  reaching 
the  base  of  the  mountains  170  miles  beyond  Pond  Creek,  nearly  at  the 
line  dividing  Colorado  from  New  Mexico.  Here  there  is  abundance  of 
timber,  and,  which  is  still  more  valuable,  exhaustless  deposits  of  bitumin 
ous  coal,  of  excellent  quality — some  of  the  veins  being  from  eleven  to 
thirteen  feet  in  thickness.  * 

*  Si>e  analysis  of  this  coal  on  last  page. 


61 

The  route,  although  it  bears  very  considerably  to  the  southward,  fol 
lows  very  nearly  the  isothermal  line — greater  altitude,  gradually  attained, 
compensating  for  lower  latitude.  The  climate,  therefore,  throughout,  will 
be  equally  removed  from  scorching  heat  as  from  bitter  cold.  A  more  de 
lightful,  salubrious  or  health-giving  region  is  not  to  be  found  on  this  con 
tinent,  or  perhaps  on  the  globe,  than  that  through  which  this  road  will 
run. 

There  is,  moreover,  probably  no  region  on  the  globe  offering  to  the  eye 
of  the  traveler  greater  variety  of  scenery — varying  from  the  surpassingly 
beautiful,  as  in  Kansas,  to  the  magnificently  grand,  as  in  parts  of  New 
Mexico,  Arizona  and  Southern  California.  Nor  is  there  a  country  in  the 
world,  lying  along  the  line  of  a  single  railroad,  the  productions  of  which 
are  so  exceedingly  diverse — those  of  soil,  pastures  and  mines.  Kansas  is 
a  garden;  Arizona  is  not,  but  it  is  rich  all  over  in  gold,  silver  and  copper; 
New  Mexico  produces  almost  everything,  and  so  does  Southern  California. 
Hence  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  interchange  of  commodities  between  these 
widely  different  regions  must  be  enormous,  and  consequently  the  local  bus 
iness  of  the  road  will  be  very  great. 

But  there  is  another  advantage,  of  vast  national  importance,  arising 
from  the  southern  bearing  of  this  road.  We  have  already  seen  how  ad 
mirably  its  initial  point  on  the  Missouri  suits  all  the  country  north  of  the 
Ohio  river.  Other  roads,  running  westward  over  the  fertile  plains  which 
stretch  westward  of  the  Mississippi,  can  easily  be  made  to  reach  it,  as  it 
flanks  the  south-eastern  base  of  the  mountains,  or  at  Albuquerque,  on  the 
Rio  Grande,  where  it  is  intended  our  road  shall  cross  that  river;  thus  giv 
ing  to  all  the  States  south  of  the  Potomac  and  the  Ohio  direct  communi 
cation  with  the  Pacific  Coast.  Thus  our  entire  country,  from  Canada  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  can  be  made  partakers  of  the  benefits  arising  from 
this  great  national  enterprise.  Nothing  can  be  more  desirable  than  to 
bring  these  States  into  community  of  interest  with  us  in  such  a  work  as 
this,  and  in  the  mutually  beneficial  rivalry  and  social  intercourse  which 
will  result  from  it. 

But  more  than  that.  By  bearing  southward  into  New  Mexico  and  Ar 
izona,  we  can  reach  Mexico  in  its  rich  and  salubrious  interior,  and  its 
equally  rich  western  border,  without  being  obliged  to  take  to  the  sea,  and 
then  cross  the  low,  torrid,  malarious  belt  that  runs  along  the  entire  east 
ern  coast  of  that  country.  Doubtless  this  is  the  agency  that  is  destined 
to  regenerate  and  rejuvenate  that  wretched,  yet  magnificent  country,  res 
tore  it  to  peace  and  prosperity,  and  give  to  it  a  better  rule.  It  will  bring 
the  influence,  not  so  much  of  our  sea-board  cities,  as  those  of  our  great 
and  energetic  interior,  to  bear  upon  it.  There  are  many  points,  from  the 


62 

llio  Grande,  all  the  way  along  the  valley  of  the  Gila,  at  which  it  may  be 
entered,  especially  in  Sonora.  The  fine  port  of  Guaymas,  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  the  gulf  of  California,  in  Sonora,  can  and  will  soon  be  reached 
by  a  branch  road  from  the  main  line  in  Arizona,  and  become  our  nearest 
Pacific  port — hundreds  of  miles  nearer  than  San  Francisco  by  any  route 
Thus  will  this  road,  by  a  mere  incident,  do  what  Napoleon,  with  his  arm 
ies  and  his  unfortunate  viceroy,  failed  to  do — give  new  life  and  a  better 
government  to  Mexico. 

The  development  of  the  immense  mineral  treasures  of  Arizona — a  por 
tion  of  our  territory  now  most  difficult  of  access — would,  of  itself,  war 
rant  the  construction  of  this  road.  There  are  probably  more  and  richer 
mines  of  gold,  silver  and  copper  in  that  territory — especially  silver — than, 
in  any  equal  portion  of  the  earth's  surface.  The  working  of  these  mines 
— as  they  will  be  worked,  when  made  accessible  by  rail — will  add  enor 
mously  both  to  the  wealth  of  the  nation  and  to  the  business  of  the  road. 
This,  too,  is  but  an  incident  arising  from  this  wise  choice  of  a  route  to  the 
Pacific. 

California  is  entered  at  the  town  of  Aubry,  on  the  Colorado  river, 
about  150  miles  above  the  bend  of  the  Gulf  of  California.  Thus  far,  the 
river  has  a  good  steamboat  navigation  nearly  at  all  seasons,  and  above,  for 
more  or  less  of  the  year.  Thence,  to  San  Francisco,  the  route  will  fol 
low  the  great  valley  of  Southern  California,  much  of  which  is  of  such 
marvelous  fertility  as  to  be  renowned  throughout  the  world.  A  branch 
from  some  point  not  far  south-west  of  Aubry,  will  connect  our  road  with 
the  fine  port  of  San  Diego,  456  nautical  miles  south-east  of  San  Fran 
cisco,  giving  us  a  second  Pacific  port  much  nearer  than  San  Francisco. 
Still,  the  latter  city  is  our  main  and  ultimate  destination,  for  it  is  now,  and 
is  likely  long  to  remain,  the  emporium  of  the  Pacific  coast. 

We  offer  these  brief  remarks  to  mark  our  contemplated  route,  and  to 
call  forth  reflection  and  discussion.  We  have  but  glanced,  as  it  were,  at 
the  great  subject  It  would  require  a  volume  to  exhaust  it.  We  believe 
it  to  be  the  grandest  work,  as  a  whole,  that  ever  engaged  the  thoughts 
and  the  energies  of  any  people — the  most  far-reaching  in  its  influences, 
and  the  most  important  in  its  local  effects.  And  we  are  firmly  persuaded 
that,  as  soon  as  it  shall  be  clearly  understood,  it  will  commend  itself  to 
the  favor  of  all  classes  of  our  citizens,  whatever  may  be  their  own  imme 
diate  locality.  We  could  not,  if  we  would,  appeal  to  sectional  interests, 
for  all  sections  are  favored  alike.  The  people  of  each  section  may  claim 
it  as  their  own,  but  none  exclusively. 


GENERAL  WILLIAM  J.  PALMER, 


TJ.  P.  R.  W.  CO.,  E.  D., 

DELIVERED    BEFORE    A    MEETING    OF    CITIZENS    OF    NEW    MEXICO, 
AT  SANTA  FE,  SEPTEMBER  21,  1867. 


YOUR  EXCELLENCY  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — There  was  probably  no  more 
striking  evidence  of  the  faith  of  the  country  in  the  successful  termination 
of  the  recent  war,  than  the  fact  that  in  July,  1862,  at  a  period  of  great 
reverses  to  our  army,  the  Pacific  Railroad  Act  was  passed,  pledging  the 
Government  to  assist — to  the  extent  of  about  one-half  its  cost — in  the 
construction  of  this  continental  highway. 

At  that  time,  however,  the  route  through  your  Territory,  although  con 
ceded  by  the  most  intelligent  authorities  to  be  the  best  for  the  whole  na 
tion,  was  too  far  south  of  that  line  which,  east  of  the  Mississippi,  was 
practically  the  divide  between  loyalty  and  rebellion,  to  be  given  any  con 
sideration.  Accordingly,  Congress  adopted  a  route  running  well  to  the 
northerly — beginning  at  Omaha,  on  the  Missouri  River,  and  extending 
by  the  Platte  valley  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  so  on  by  the  natural 
extension  of  that  line  through  or  near  Salt  Lake  City  to  Sacramento  in 
California. 

The  great  central  system  of  railroads,  however,  terminating  at  Leaven- 
worth  and  Kansas  City,  on  the  Missouri,  were  given  a  connection  with  the 
main  trunk,  by  means  of  the  Union  JPacific  Railway,  Eastern  Division, 
which  was  granted  the  aid  of  Government  for  a  distance  of  about  385 
miles,  to  enable  it  to  extend  up  the  valley  of  Kansas  as  far  as  Fort  Riley, 
and  thence  northwestwardly  by  the  Republican  Fork,  to  a  point  of  con 
nection  with  the  Omaha  line. 


64 

But  the  managers  of  this  Kansas  Pacific  Road  and  those  controlling 
the  great  connecting  lines  eastward  to  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  New  York 
and  Boston,  became  convinced,  as  soon  as  the  war  was  over,  and  the  po 
litical  reasons  theretofore  paramount  had  ceased  to  have  weight,  that  this 
line,  instead  of  deflecting  northward  from  Fort  Riley  to  connect  with  the 
Platte  route,  should  be  extended  as  an  independent  trunk  line  through  to 
the  Pacific,  on  a  latitude  free  from  those  wintry  obstacles  which  sur 
rounded  and  threatened  the  success  of  the  northern  route. 

In  furtherance  of  this  plan,  Congress,  on  application  being  made  to  it 
in  July,  1866,  repealed  the  Republican  clause,  and  allowed  the  road  to  go 
west  by  such  route  as  the  company  might  choose,  but  without  extending 
the  Government  aid  beyond  the  original  distance.  At  its  next  session, 
Congress  will  be  asked  to  lend  the  same  assistance  to  this  line  through  to 
San  Francisco  as  has  been  given  to  the  line  from  Omaha,  and  it  is  in  view 
of  this  policy,  and  in  order  that  facts  and  figures,  instead  of  mere  theoreti 
cal  speculations,  may  be  laid  before  the  country  and  its  law-makers,  that 
the  company  has  sent  out  its  engineer  parties  to  make  a  connected  series 
of  levels  and  chained  measurements,  from  the  terminus  of  its  completed 
line  in  Kansas  through  to  San  Francisco  and  San  Diego. 

These  surveys  have  now  by  two  routes  reached  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
will  be  immediately  extended  west  to  the  Pacific  by  one  party  on  the  35th 
parallel,  and  another  by  the  valley  of  the  Gila.  They  have  already  de 
monstrated,  after  having  crossed  one  great  chain  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
not  only  that  there  are  no  serious  obstacles  to  the  speedy  and  economical 
construction  of  this  road,  and  that  those  peculiar  difficulties  of  water, 
timber,  fuel,  &c.,  which  in  some  minds  had  been  supposed  to  render  a 
Pacific  Railroad  impossible,  were  to  a  great  extent  myths — but  also  that 
many  important  advantages  exist  on  this  route  which  had  not  before  been 
known  to  the  company  or  the  people  at  large,  and  that  those  which  had 
been  generally  thought  to  exist,  so  far  from  being  exaggerated,  have  really 
fallen  short  of  the  truth. 

It  is  unnecessary,  gentlemen,  to  do  more  than  merely  name  to  an  audi 
ence  in  this  Territory,  the  nature  of  these  advantages;  the  mildness  of 
the  climate,  the  detached  character  of  the  mountains  and  the  low  altitude 
of  their  passes,  the  long  extent  of  gentle  valleys  and  nearly  level  mesas ; 
the  abundance  of  coal,  and  the  sufficiency  of  timber  and  water;  the  vast 
local  resources  of  mineral  ores,  rich  pastures  and  vinelands;  the  tapping 
of  the  well-watered  valleys  of  the  Arkansas,  upper  Canadian,  Rio  Grande 
and  Great  Colorado  of  the  .west;  the  intersection  of  the  Colorado  at  a 
point  far  below  the  head  of  navigation,  thus  cheapening  and  doubling  the 
speed  with  which  the  road  can  be  built;  the  fact  that  enough  native  labor 


65 

already  exists  in  your  Territory,  aud  can  be  cheaply  .secured  and  supplied 
at  home,  to  construct  the  road  for  nearly  half  of  its  entire  length;  and 
finally,  the  fact  that  by  the  35th  parallel  it  is  at  least  as  short  a  line  to 
San  Francisco  from  New  York  City  as  any  other,  and  that  to  the  Pacific 
at  San  Diego  or  Guaymas  it  is  by  far  the  shortest  line. 

But  while  it  is  needless  to  stop  to  enlarge  upon  these  facts  which  are 
already  so  well  known  to  you,  I  may  be  pardoned  for  calling  your  atten 
tion  to  certain  points  which  disclose  the  interest  which  the  whole  country 
has  in  the  immediate  commencement  and  speedy  completion  of  this  road 
— apart  from  the  consideration  that  it  is  the  best  route. 

And  in  the  first  place,  more  than  one  Pacific  Railroad  is  needed. 

The  managers  of  the  northern  road  from  Omaha  to  San  Francisco,  at 
both  ends  of  the  line,  have  shown  the  greatest  spirit  and  energy  in  the 
prosecution  of  their  work — and  as  American  citizens  we  must  admire 
their  courage  and  persistency,  and  hope  that  their  efforts  will  be  crowned 
with  the  success  they  deserve.  We  have  no  contest  with  them,  except 
to  reach  the  western  Ocean  before  them.  But  with  all  their  indomitable 
Anglo  Saxon  energy  and  pluck,  they  cannot  master  the  elements,  and  it 
is  feared  that  their  road,  even  when  completed,  will  for  several  months  of 
the  winter  season  be  blocked  up  with  snow,  and  fail  to  meet  the  wants 
and  expectations  of  the  country.  This  is  the  opinion,  I  think,  of  at  least 
seven-eighths  of  all  the  over-land  travelers  that  have  been  over  that  route 
in  winter.  I  hope  that  these  fears  may  prove  to  be  exaggerated,  and  that 
Yankee  ingenuity  may  find  means  of  overcoming  such  obstacles.  But 
even  if  they  should,  is  the  necessity  of  another  line  to  the  Pacific  in  any 
degree  lessened?  Not  at  all.  Before  either  road  can  be  finished,  both  will 
be  insufficient  to  carry  the  trade  of  the  country,  and  second  tracks  will  be 
required  to  be  begun  on  each.  Again,  the  northern  line  will  not  in  any 
respect  develop  the  vast  Territory  of  the  U.  S.  lying  upon  our  route,  and 
all  communication  with  Southern  Kansas  and  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  Ari 
zona,  Southern  and  Middle  California,  Northern  and  Western  Texas,  and 
the  rich  Northern  States  of  old  Mexico  would  continue  as  before  to  depend 
upon  the  slow  and  expensive  wagon  train.  The  country  embraced  within 
these  limits  is  probably  now  inhabited  by  a  population  of  a  half  million  of 
souls,  greatly  exceeding  that  possessed  by  all  the  remainder  of  the  country 
not  tapped  by  this  line  between  the  Missouri  River  and  the  Pacific  Coast. 
The  local  resources  of  this  section  are  only  beginning  to  be  appreciated  by 
our  people,  but  in  my  opinion  they  are  alone  sufficient  to  warrant  the  invest 
ment  by  private  capitalists,  if  properly  aided  at  the  start  by  a  loan  from 
the  Government,  of  the  sums  required  to  build  a  Railroad  through  it. 
It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out  the  benefit  that  would  accrue  to  the 


66 

whole  nation  in  enlarging  its  trade  and  power,  and  increasing  its  taxable 
wealthy  that  would  accrue  from  the  development  of  these  neglected  re 
sources.  Build  this  road,  and  the  national  debt  will  soon  cease  to  be  a 
matter  of  concern  to  statesmen  or  financiers. 

Moreover,  every  section  of  the  country — by  means  of  the  railway  connec 
tions  already  existing  with  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  Eastern  Division, 
at  Kansas  City  and  Lcavenworth,  and  by  means  of  comparatively  short 
branches  that  can  be  built  from  Memphis  or  Shreveport  to  intersect  our 
main  trunk  on  the  Rio  Grande,  when  the  condition  of  southern  trade  is  such 
as  to  warrant  it, — is  put  into  short  and  cheap  communication  with  all  this 
territorial  wealth,  and  with  the  Pacific  Coast  by  this  route.  Memphis  will 
be  only  30  miles  farther  from  Albuquerque  than  St.  Louis,  while  Chicago 
will  be  no  farther  than  St.  Louis  except  by  its  distance  from  the  Missis 
sippi  river,  and  New  Orleans  will  be  as  near  as  Chicago.  Thus  every  sec 
tion  of  our  common  country  will  be  accommodated. 

But  there  is  another  important  respect  in  which  this  road  will  benefit 
the  entire  nation,  and  become  almost  a  matter  of  necessity  to  it.  I  refer 
to  the  effect  it  will  have  on  the  Indian  question.  You  are  aware  of  the 
enormous  extent  to  which  the  settlement  of  these  Territories  and  the  de 
velopment  of  their  wealth  is  retarded  by  the  noble  red  man,  and  of  the  tax 
which  his  imaginary  suppression  has  been  upon  the  Treasury  of  the  United 
States.  I  don't  know  that  I  blame  the  savage  for  following  out  the  instincts 
of  his  race — possibly  he  is  just  in  conceiving  that  you  pioneers  in  the  west 
ward  march  of  civilization  have  no  right  here,  and  that  the  country  should 
revert  to  him.  But  if  we  do  adopt  the  other  theory,  and  conclude  that 
Heaven  intended  man  and  all  things  to  improve  instead  of  degenerating, 
let  us  at  all  events  be  logical  in  it;  and,  in  the  name  of  consistency,  adopt 
such  a  course  as  will  prevent  this  vast  territory  intervening  between  our 
Eastern  and  Pacific  States  from  being  given  over  to  perpetual  barbarism. 
Well,  how  shall  we  do  this?  By  sending  out  two  regiments,  and  expend 
ing  two  millions  of  dollars  each,  every  year,  (which  is  the  interest  of  thirty  - 
three  millions  of  dollars^)  to  sustain  them?  By  maintaining,  at  great  cost, 
forts  and  military  posts  along  a  belt  of  2,000  miles?  Or  even  by  the  more 
humane  and  less  expensive  way  of  cooping  up  the  Indians,  or  such  as  will 
stay,  in  reservations,  and  feeding  them  ?  Or  shall  the  Government  drop 
about  two  regiments  from  the  army,  capitalize  the  annual  saving  to  its 
Treasury  therefrom,  and  lend  the  amount  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  a 
Pacific  Railroad? 

Once  built,  the  Railroad  will  take  care  of  the  Indian  question.  Settle 
ments  will  spring  up  along  its  line  as  in  Eastern  Kansas  and  Nebraska, 
that  will  be  strong  enough  to  protect  themselves  and  the  surrounding  country  ; 


67 

and  the  Navajos,  Apaches  and  Comanches  will  either  squat  down  peaceably 
on  their  farms  as  the  Delawares  and  Wyandottes  have  done — or  else  betake 
themselves,  as  I  hope  and  believe,  to  regular  employment  on  the  Railroad 
itself. 

Before  long,  not  a  17.  S.  soldier  would  be  required  from  the  Missouri  to 
the  Colorado  of  the  West;  but  while  any  troops  were  required,  the  economy 
with  which  they  could  be  transported  on  a  railroad,  and  the  great  efficiency 
they  would  derive  from  their  superior  mobility,  would  go  far  towards  com 
pensating  the  Government  for  its  railroad  loan. 

Again,  the  construction  of  this  road  would  open  up  the  States  of  Chi 
huahua,  Sonora  and  Durango  to  our  trade  from  the  only  proper  direction 
in  which  it  can  be  reached ',  and,  by  gradual  but  certain  process,  bring 
about  peacefully  those  relations  with  Old  Mexico  which  the  people  of  the 
United  States  have  so  much  at  heart,  and  which  will  prevent  the  possi 
bility  of  future  European  aggression  so  close  upon  our  borders. 

Now  what  is  the  Government  asked  to  do  to  ensure  all  these  advanta  • 
ges  to  the  country?  Simply  to  make  a  loan,  secured  by  mortgage  on  the 
property,  of  such  an  amount  per  mile  of  United  States  bonds  bearing  6 
per  cent,  interest,  and  having  thirty  years  to  run,  as  will,  in  connection 
with  the  private  capital  that  can  be  raised,  build  the  road.  So  far  from 
this  taking  any  money  out  of  the  United  States  Treasury,  it  can  be  proven 
that  without  considering  at  all  the  indirect  pecuniary  benefits  which  I  have 
already  mentioned,  the  whole  amount  of  principal  and  interest  will  be  re 
funded  directly  to  the  Treasury  by  the  time  the  loan  matures.  The 
experience  already  had  upon  the  portion  of  the  line  completed  in  Kan 
sas,  shows  that  under  the  provision  of  the  Act  which  reserves  to  the  Gov 
ernment  one-half  of  all  the  charges  for  transportation  of  mails,  troops, 
military  stores  and  Indian  supplies,  as  a  credit  to  the  loan  made  to  the 
Railway  Company,  the  Government  is  at  no  expense  for  the  interest  upon 
the  bonds  it  has  advanced;  but,  more  than  tliat,  it  is  receiving  back  of  the 
principal  enough  money  to  pay  off"  the  whole  debt  in  twenty  years,  while  the 
Government  itself  does  not  have  to  pay  those  bonds  for  thirty  years 

Now,  gentlemen,  we  ask  your  assistance,  and  that  of  the  citizens  of 
New  Mexico  generally,  in  making  these  facts  known,  and  especially  in 
diffusing  information  about  the  resources  of  your  Territory,  and  her  topo 
graphical  and  climatic  advantages  of  this  route.  You  can  do  it  through 
newspapers,  by  correspondence  with  those  in  the  East,  and  by  private 
correspondence  with  your  friends  in  Congress,  and  other  leaders  and 
representatives  of  public  opinion  in  the  States.  It  is  needless  to  point 
out  to  you  the  immense  stake  you  have  in  the  result.  All  classes  of  your 
people  will  be  benefited;  the  poorer  classes  by  the  profitable  employment 


68 

it  will  afford  them  in  the  construction  and  operation  of  the  road,  and  the 
cheapening  of  every  article  that  they  wear  or  consume ;  the  Ranchero  by 
the  great  demand  that  will  spring  np  for  all  the  products  of  his  farm,  and 
the  new  markets  that  it  will  open  for  his  stock  •  the  miner  by  the  cheap 
ening  of  machinery  and  all  supplies,  and  the  outlet  for  his  ores ;  the  rich 
man  by  the  enhanced  value  of  his  lands  and  other  property;  and  all 
classes  by  the  protection  it  will  afford  from  the  Indians.  Let  us  then  ask 
you  to  give  six  months  of  energetic  work,  between  this  and  the  coming 
session  of  Congress,  to  aid  us  in  obtaining  the  favor  of  the  country  for 
this  route. 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  we  shall  succeed.  The  book  which 
I  hold  contains  the  resolutions  and  speeches  of  a  large  number  of  the  most 
influential  Senators  and  Representatives  in  the  country,  who  visited  the 
line  of  our  road  in  Kansas  last  summer.  One  and  all,  they  committed 
themselves  to  the  policy  of  extending  the  aid  of  the  Government  to  this 
as  an  independent  line  through  to  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  these  men  are 
chief  among  the  leaders  of  public  thought  in  our  country. 

This  great  line  once  completed,  it  requires  no  prophetic  power  to  fore 
see  the  future  of  the  regions  it  will  develop.  Here  in  New  Mexico, 
where  only  the  miner's  ranche  is  now  visible,  furnaces  and  factories  will 
be  built,  and  cities  will  spring  from  the  earth  at  the  call  of  intelligent 
labor.  Arizona  will  then  be  no  longer  a  terra  incognita,  but  the  home  of 
an  industrious  people,  bound  with  bands  of  iron  to  the  sister  common 
wealths  that  surround  her.  But  who  shall  speak  of  the  effect  which  it 
will  have  on  the  course  of  trade  throughout  the  world;  that  wonderful 
commerce  of  the  eastern  seas,  which  from  time  immemorial  has  built  up 
populous  cities  along  its  channels,  and  enriched  every  nation  through 
whose  hands  it  has  passed.  Then  shall  we  see  the  East  India  Company 
communicating  orders  to  its  Governors  across  your  plains,  and  the  nabobs 
from  Calcutta  returning  by  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  spend  their  wealth  in 
London.  The  old  dream  of  Columbus  will  then  have  been  realized,  and 
the  East  will  have  been  found  at  last  by  sailing  to  the  West. 

RESOLUTIONS  PASSED  AT  THE  ABOVE  MEETING, 

WHEREAS,  The  Engineer  Corps  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  Eastern 
Division,  are  now  in  this  Territory  engaged  in  surveying,  both  on  the  32d 
and  35th  parallels,  for  a  route  to  the  Pacific  Coast  from  the  road  in 
Kansas : — 

Resolved,  1.  That  we  consider  the  route  through  New  Mexico  prefer 
able  to  any  other,  for  the  following  reasons,  viz : 


69 

1.  Because  of  the  low  elevations  of  the  mountain  summits,  and  the 
consequent  economy  in  construction  and  operation. 

2.  Because  our  experience  and  observations  here  for  a  continuous 
number  of  years,  have  convinced  us  that  none  of  the  obstructions  and 
inconveniences  of  winter  exist  on  this  route,  and  that  the  road,  when 
built,  can  be  operated  every  day  of  the  year. 

3.  Because,  while  for  the  above  and  other  reasons  it  offers  the  best 
route  to  San  Francisco,  it  is  also  much  the  shortest  route  to  the  Pacific 
waters,  from  any  city  in  the  Union  on  or  east  of  the  Mississippi  river,  to 
the  excellent  ports  of  Griiaymas  and  San  Diego. 

4.  Because  it  gives  every  State  of  the  Union  a  direct  communication 
across  the  continent;  the  Northern  and  Middle  States  by  the  railroads 
already  connecting  with  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  Eastern  Division, 
at  Kansas  City  or  Leavenworth;  and  the  Southern  States  by  a  direct 
line  from  Memphis,  Shreveport  or  New   Orleans,  connecting  with  the 
main  trunk  on  the  Rio  Grande. 

5.  Because  the  abundance  of  coal,  iron  ore,  limestone  and  timber  along 
the  route  at  convenient  distances,  and  the  fact  that  an  abundance  of  cheap 
labor  already  exists  throughout  New  Mexico,  as  well  as  supples  to  subsist 
this  labor,  remove  the  principal  difficulties  that  have  been  urged  against 
the  practicability,  or  the  cheap  construction  and  operation  of  a  Pacific 
llailroad. 

6.  Because  the  Colorado  River,  being  navigable  far  above  where  this 
road  will  cross  it,  whether  the  32d  or  the  35th  parallel  be  adopted,  pre 
sents  means  of  transporting  material  for  the   construction  of  the  road 
which  will  greatly  cheapen  its  cost  and  hasten  its  completion,  while  it  will 
afford  an  additional  outlet  to  tide  water  from  the  rich  mines  of  New  Mex 
ico  and  Arizona. 

Resolved,  2.  That  in  the  construction  of  this  road  we  see  a  peaceful 
and  permanent  solution  of  the  Indian  question,  which  has  cost  so  much 
life  and  treasure,  retarding  the  tide  of  Western  emigration  and  the  de 
velopment  of  our  Territories,  besides  agitating  the  whole  nation  without 
adding  to  its  honor.  Overcome  by  the  settlements  which  will  spring  up 
as  the  railroad  advances,  the  Indian  will  be  forced  to  accept  the  usages 
of  civilization  or  disappear  from  the  land. 

Resolved,  3.  That  we  believe  the  yearly  cost  of  maintaining  troops 
now  used  in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  alone,  in  a  futile  effort  to  keep 
down  the  Indians,  is  sufficient  to  subsidize  the  whole  of  the  proposed 
Railroad,  from  the  Smoky  Hill  in  Kansas  to  San  Francisco,  on  this 
route;  and  that  the  principal  of  the  money  thus  annually  expended,  if 
assisted  by  the  Government  in  a  loan  to  this  road,  secured  by  a  mort- 


70 

gage  on  the  property,  would,  instead  of  being  as  now  entirely  unremun- 
erative,  be,  in  our  opinion,  not  only  more  than  compensated  by  the  greater 
economy  of  transportation  of  troops,  supplies  and  mails  for  the  Govern 
ment,  but  would  be  refunded  directly,  principal,  and  interest,  to  the  Unit 
ed  States  Treasury  as  the  same  became  due,  and  that  it  would  besides 
open  up  to  the  nation  innumerable  sources  of  revenue. 

Resolved,  4.  That  by  this  route  the  rich  provinces  of  Chihuahua,  So- 
nora  and  Durango  can  be  easily  and  cheaply  reached  by  branch  roads 
bringing  the  trade  of  Mexico  again  into  its  former  channels  towards  St. 
Louis,  inducing  those  social  and  political  relations  which  will  more 
closely  bind  us  to  the  neighboring  republic  of  Mexico,  and  affording  a  cer 
tain  safeguard  against  any  future  European  attempts  at  the  invasion  of 
this  portion  of  the  continent. 

Resolved }  5.  That  the  mineral  and  pastoral  resources  of  New  Mexico, 
Arizona  and  Southern  Colorado,  which  are  unsurpassed  in  the  whole 
United  States,  will  be  developed  to  such  an  extent  by  the  construction  of 
this  road,  as  to  add  immensely  to  the  aggregate  wealth  and,  power  of  the 
nation,  and,  especially  that  the  amount  of  gold  and  silver  derived  from  these 
mines  will  greatly  hasten  the,  resumption  of  specie  payment. 

Resolved,  6  That  while  this  route  offers  a  better  and  shorter  communi 
cation  between  the  two  oceans  than  any  other,  it  will  also  have  tributary  to 
it  a  population  of  a  half  million  souls  now  living  in  Southern  Colorado, 
New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Northern  Texas,  and  Southern  and  Middle  Cali 
fornia,  besides  the  Northern  States  of  Mexico. 

Resolved,  7.  That  we  recommend  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
at  its  next  session,  in  view  of  the  facts  presented  in  the  foregoing  resolutions, 
to  extend  to  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  Eastern  Division,  the  same  aid 
for  their  road  from  Kansas  by  this  route  to  San  Francisco,  as  is  now  or 
may  hereafter  be  granted  to  the  line  from  Omaha  via  Salt  Lake  to  San 
Francisco. 

Resolved,  8.  That  we  pledge  our  co-operation  to  the  officers  and  corpo 
ration  interested  in  this  proposed  route  through  this  Territory,  and  our 
assistance  to  the  great  national  enterprise  in  which  they  are  engaged. 

Resolved,  9.  That  we  return  our  thanks  to  the  officers  of  the  Railroad, 
and  the  organization  they  represent,  for  the  manner  in  which  they  have 
discharged  the  duties  entrusted  to  them,  and  especially  to  General  Palmer 
for  his  able  and  lucid  exposition  of  the  purposes  of  the  company  which 
he  represents,  and  of  the  progress  in  construction  and  survey  which  the 
company  has  made. 

Resolved,  10.  That  a  committee  he  appointed  to  collect  from  the  various 
parts  of  the  Territory,  such  information  as  will  be  useful  in  the  surveying 


and  constructing  of  a  railroad  through  its  borders,  and  also  as  to  the  min 
eral  and  other  resources  of  the  Territory,  and  to  communicate  with  the 
officers  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  Eastern  Division,  and  with  other 
parties,  for  the  purpose  of  expediting  the  building  of  such  a  railroad. 
That  such  committee  shall  be  allowed  and  instructed  to  add  to  their  num 
ber,  the  names  of  other  persons  in  the  different  portions  of  the  Territory, 
from  time  to  time,  as  they  shall  find  it  advisable,  for  the  purpose  of  aiding 
in  the  enterprise  of  the  construction  of  a  Pacific  Railroad  through  New 
Mexico. 

R.  H.  WHITING, 

Secretary ,  ex  officio. 


REPORT 

THE       GOIsTIDITIOliT       .A-ItTID       IP  IR.  OGRESS 

OF    THE 

UNION  PACIFIC  RAILWAY,  E.D, 

FOR  THE  YEAR  ENDING  SEPTEMBER  30,  1867, 
]VEade    to    the    SECRETARY    OF1    THE    INTERIOR. 


St.  Louis,  October  11,  1867. 
HON.  0.  H.  BROWNING, 

Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Washington,  D.  C., 

SIR: — In  compliance  with  your  letter  of  the  20th  ult.,  I  have  the  honor 
to  make  the  following  report  of  the  present  condition  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railway,  Eastern  Division,  and  of  the  progress  made  in  the  work  during 
the  past  year.  On  October  llth,  the  date  of  my  last  report,  the  railroad 
and  telegraph  lines  were  completed  and  in  operation  to  Fort  Riley,  135 
miles  west  of  the  Missouri  River,  and  of  this  distance  130  miles  had  been 
accepted  by  the  United  States  Government. 

On  Oct.  15,  1866,  the  road  was  open  for  business  to  Junction  City,  139  miles. 
"    May    8,  1867,  "  "  "  Salina,  186       " 

'•    July  15,  1867,  "  "  "  Ellsworth,         224       " 

One  hundred  and  fifty-five  miles  of  road  have  been  built  since  date  of 
last  report,  and  the  railroad  and  telegraph  line  are  now  completed  and  in 
operation  to  Hays  City,  near  Fort  Hays,  290  miles  west  from  the  Missouri 
River,  and  has  been  inspected  by  the  Commissioners  and  accepted  by  the 
Government  to  the  259th  mile  post.  Including  the  branch  road  of  31 
miles  between  Leavenworth  and  Lawrence,  to  aid  in  the  construction  of 


73 

which  the  Government  extended  no  subsidy,  this  company  has  built  and 
equipped  321  miles  of  railroad;  and  there  is  now  a  continuous  line  of 
railroad  and  telegraph  completed  to  a  point  573  miles  west  from  the  city 
of  St.  Louis. 

The  road  has  been  provided,  during  the  course  of  construction,  with 
round-house  accommodations,  repair  shops,  turn-tables,  water  tanks,  sid 
ings,  &c.,  to  meet  the  immediate  wants  of  business;  and  the  necessary 
warehouse  and  depot  buildings  have  been  erected  at  the  stations  along 
the  road  for  the  accommodation  of  passengers  and  freight.  The  company 
have  commenced  to  erect,  in  the  most  substantial  manner,  a  large  round 
house,  blacksmith  shop,  machine-shop,  foundry  and  car-building  shops,  of 
sufficient  size  to  meet  the  probable  future  wants  of  the  company  for  the 
eastern  end  of  the  road,  at  Lawrence,  37  miles  from  the  Missouri  River. 

The  following  equipment  for  the  road  has  been  delivered,  and  is  now 

in  use: 

25  Locomotives,  334  Flat  Cars, 

18  Passenger  Cars,  75  Stock  Cars, 

8  Baggage,  Mail  and  Exp.  Cars,  65  Hand  Cars, 

237  Box  Cars,  7  Boarding  Cars. 

In  addition,  the  following  rolling  stock  has  been  contracted  for,  but  is 
not  yet  delivered : 

2  Locomotives,  9  Box  Cars, 

2  Passenger  Cars,  25  Stock  Cars, 

88  Flat  Cars,  18  Hand  Cars. 

Iron  has  been  ordered  sufficient  to  complete  the  road  to  the  335th 
mile-post  west  from  the  Missouri  River;  all  of  which,  except  1750  tons, 
has  been  delivered  on  the  road  in  Kansas.  All  the  iron  used  in  constuc- 
tion  of  the  road  is  of  the  best  American  manufacture,  and  the  rails  weigh 
56  Ibs.  per  linear  yard. 

On  the  15th  October,  1866,  the  road  was  turned  over  to  the  company 
by  the  contractors,  completed,  equipped  and  in  operation  to  Junction 
City,  139  miles. 

From  October  15th,  1866,  to  August  31st,  1867,  a  period  of  10J 
months,  the  earnings  of  the  company  have  been  as  follows : 


74 


TOTAL 
RECEIPTS. 

From  Government 
Business. 

From  Merchandise  & 
Passenger  Traffic. 

1866     Oct   15  to  Nov  30 

$117  754   10 

$25  998  38 

$91  755  72 

December  

61  911  95 

7  743   14 

54  168  81 

1867  —  January                     .  .       .  . 

66  581  58 

7  014  61 

59  566  97 

61,056  19 

20  469  24 

40  586  95 

March  

94  843   18 

34  864  98 

59  978  20 

April 

103  784  76 

21  002  02 

39  782   74 

May    . 

172,106  28 

51  230  90 

120  875  38 

June                                . 

122  306   65 

38  980  04 

83  326  61 

July    . 

189,570  59 

64,545  46 

125  025   13 

August  

236  567  80 

87  100  72 

149  467  08 

$1,226,483   08 

$358,949  49 

$867,533  59 

In  my  last  report,  the  opinion  was  expressed  "  that  within  a  few  years 
the  amount  of  business  that  will  be  done  over  this  road  for  the  Grovern- 
ment,  in  the  transportation  of  its  supplies,  mails,  &c.,  will  be  so  large  that 
the  fifty  per  cent,  provided  by  law  to  be  retained  of  these  charges,  will 
nearly  if  not  quite  meet  the  interest  paid  by  the  Government  on  United 
States  Bonds  issued  in  aid  of  the  road." 

It  affords  me  pleasure  to  be  able  to  state  that  this  result  has  already 
been  attained,  as  shown  in  the  following  statement: 

Total  Government  business  for  10^  months,  ending  Aug.  31,  1867,  $358,949  49 

Fifty  (50)  per  cent,  retained  by  the  Government  ........................  179,474  75 

Total  interest  paid  from  United  States  Treasury  up  to  July  1,  1867, 

on  bonds  issued  to  this  Company  .......................  .  ...........  173,285  22 

Leaving  excess  in  hands  of  U.  S.  Treasurer,  in  ten  and  one-half 

months,  over  all  interest  previously  paid  on  bonds  .....  $6,189  53 


It  will  be  observed  that  the  amount  here  given  includes  interest  paid  in 
1865  and  1866  on  bonds  issued  to  this  company. 

The  following  table  will  more  fully  show  the  relation  of  the  present 
business  of  the  Government  to  the  interest  paid  from  the  National 
Treasury  on  bonds  issued  to  this  Company: 

During  the  month  of  August,  1867,  the  road  was  open  for  business 

to  Ellsworth  ...................................................................  224  miles. 

Total  distance  accepted  by  Government,  and  Bonds  issued  thereon, 

to  August  31  ..............................  r  ..................................  234  " 


75 

Total  Government  business $87,100  72 

Fifty  (50)  per  cent,  retained  by  U.  S.  Treasurer $43,550  36 

Total  Bonds  received  by  this  Company  from  the  United  States,  on 

234  miles $3,744,000  00 

Interest  on  all  Bonds  received,  August  31,  1867,  for  one  month,  at 

6  per  cent 18,720  00 

Excess  retained  in  Treasury,  for  month  of  August  $24,830  36 


which  contributes  at  the  rate  per  annum  of  $297,964  32;  equivalent  to 
nearly  8  per  cent,  per  annum  of  the  principal  of  said  Bonds,  which 
do  not  mature  for  30  years. 

The  railroad  of  this  company,  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  its  opera 
tion,  when  it  bears  the  material  of  the  Government  to  a  point  only  224 
miles  west  from  its  initial  point,  not  only  repays  to  the  Grovernment  all 
the  interest  expended  on  the  bonds  loaned  to  aid  in  its  construction,  but 
also  contributes  sufficient  to  meet  the  principal  of  these  bonds  in  about 
fourteen  years,  and  this  from  the  Government  business  alone.  It  is 
believed  that  the  payment  of  these  bonds  at  maturity  from  this  source  is 
now  fully  assured.  The  statement  above  given,  shows  that  the  Union 
Pacific  Railway,  Eastern  Division,  is  being  built,  so  far  as  the  Government 
is  concerned,  simply  by  the  loan  of  its  credit  for  a  term  of  years  upon 
ample  security  and  without  the  actual  expenditure  of  a  single  dollar  of 
money  from  the  Public  Treasury. 

In  addition  to  the  great  saving  to  the  Government  in  the  expense  of 
moving  troops  and  supplies  across  the  Plains,  and  the  rapid  settlement  of 
the  public  lands  consequent  upon  the  construction  of  this  road,  it  is  worthy 
of  note  that,  as  the  road  advances,  several  large  and  expensive  forts  and 
military  posts,  formerly  required  upon  the  frontier,  become  no  longer  ne 
cessary,  and  their  garrisons  and  costly  equipment  are  moved  to  other 
points. 

The  company  has  organized  and  sent  into  the  field  during  the  past  year 
three  large  surveying  parties,  and  has  already  had  careful  instrumental 
examinations  made,  covering  an  aggregate  distance  of  more  than  1,300 
miles. 

Two  lines  have  been  run  from  Fort  Wallace  to  Denver,  and  a  practica 
ble  route  found.  A  line  has  been  surveyed  from  Fort  Wallace  to  the 
Arkansas  River,  and  thence  up  the  Purgatory  valley  through  the  passes 
of  the  Ptaton  Mountains  to  Fort  Union,  and  with>two  lines  thence  through 
the  easternmost  range  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  Albuquerque  and  Fort 
Craig  on  the  Rio  Grande.  Another  line  has  been  examined  up  the  valley 
of  the  Huerfano  River,  through  the  Sangre  de  Christo  pass,  via  Fort  Gar 
land,  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  thence,  via  Santa  Fe,  to  Albuquerque. 


76 

These  surveying  parties  having  been  organised  into  two  divisions,  are 
now  making  a  careful  survey  of  two  general  routes  from  the  Rio  Grande 
to  the  Pacific  ocean;  one  along  the  35th  parallel  west  from  Albuquerque, 
the  other  from  Fort  Craig  along  the  32d  parallel,  by  what  is  known  as  the 
Gila  route. 

As  far  as  these  surveys  have  extended,  a  practicable  route  for  a  railroad 
has  been  found.  At  no  point  will  the  grades  exceed  the  maximum  allowed 
by  law  for  the  Pacific  Railroad;  and  these  will  be  reached,  for  short  dis 
tances,  at  only  two  or  three  points  between  Fort  Wallace  and  the  Rio 
G-rande.  The  highest  altitude  attained  on  this  line  is  7,846*  feet  above 
tide  water. 

Very  extensive  deposits  of  excellent  coal  and  iron,  and  abundance  of 
timber  for  cross-ties,  occur  on  the  route  of  this  survey,  south  of  the  Ark 
ansas  river. 

The  hostility  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  plains,  during  the  past  summer, 
has  seriously  interfered  with  the  progress  of  the  work  of  building  the 
road.  The  military  guards  were  not  sufficient  to  protect  our  scattered 
parties,  which  have  been  continually  menaced;  several  of  our  camps  have 
been  attacked,  seventeen  men  have  been  killed,  and  very  many  driven  off 
and  intimidated;  hundreds  of  head  of  stock  have  been  seized  by  the  sav 
ages,  and  a  large  amount  of  working  material  destroyed.  The  company, 
however,  having  secured  a  supply  of  arms  and  ammunition  from  the  Gov 
ernment,  armed  all  the  employees  engaged  in  grading  and  tracklaying, 
and  by  an  increase  of  wages  succeeded  in  retaining  a  sufficient  force  to 
keep  the  work  advancing. 

The  cholera,  which  attacked  the  garrisons  of  the  posts  on  the  plains, 
also  appeared,  about  June  25th,  among  our  workmen ;  and  to  the  fear  of 
Indians  was  added  the  terrors  of  this  disease. 

Had  the  work  not  been  delayed  by  the  Indians,  it  is  confidently  believed 
the  road  would  have  been  finished  to  Fort  Wallace  by  the  end  of  the 
present  year;  but  notwithstanding  these  unexpected  causes  of  serious  in 
terruption  and  delay,  the  work  of  construction  has  advanced  satisfactorily, 
although  at  largely  increased  expense,  and,  we  have  now  every  reason  to 
believe,  will  reach  a  point  335  miles  west  from  the  Missouri  River  by  the 
31st  of  December,  1867.f  Respectfully, 

(SIGNED)  JOHN  D.  PERRY, 

President. 

*  Since  the  above  was  written,  the  Chief  Engineer  has  made  a  preliminary  Report  of  the  survey 
from  Fort  Wallace,  Kansas,  to  Fort  Craig,  New  Mexico.  The  highest  elevation  on  the  proposed  line 
is  7,136  feet,  at  the  head  of  Canon  Blanco,  on  the  plateau  dividing  the  waters  of  the  Pecos  River  from 
those  which  flow  into  the  Rio  Grande. 

f  Dfcember  20, 1867.— The  track  is  now  laid  and  the  road  in  operation  to  the  335th  mile  post  west 
from  the  Missouri  River. 


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78 

Total  Government  business  for  12  months,  ending  Oct.  31,  1867,        $455,653  65 

Fifty  per  cent,  retained  by  law  in  hands  of  U.  S.  Treasurer 227,826  82 

Interest  paid  by  U.  S.  from  Nov.  1,  1866,  to  July  1,  1867,  on  bonds 

issued  to  this  Company $99,454  29 

Interest  to  be  paid  by  U.  S.  from  July  1  to  Oct.  31,  1867, 

on  bonds  issued  to  this  Company,  (due  Jan.  1,  1868,)  $70, 854  93 

Total  interest  paid  and  to  be  paid  by  U.  S.  Government 
from  Nov.  1,  1866,  to  Oct.  31,  1867,  on  all  bonds* 
issued  to  this  Company $170,309  22 

Excess  remaining  in  hands  of  U.  S.  Treasurer,  after  repayment  of 
all  interest  paid  and  to  be  paid  by  the  Government,  from 
Nov.  1,1866,  to  Oct.  31,  1867,  on  bonds  issued  to  this  Company  $57,517  60 


The  following  is  an   Exhibit   of  the  Earnings  and  Expenses  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Railway,  E.  D.,  for  the  month  of  October,  1867 : 


Total  Government  business $  81,517  59 

Merchandise  and  passenger  traffic 185,653  61 

Total...  $267,171  20 


EXPENSES. 


Working  expenses $120,146  06 

Net  proceeds  to  balance 147,025  14 

Total $267,171   20 


Oct.  1,  Road  in  operation  to  Ellsworth 224  miles. 

»  14,     »  "  Hays  290      » 

Average  length  of  main  line  operated  during  October 260      " 


Total  Government  business  as  above $81,517  59 

Fifty  per  cent,  retained  by  law  by  U.  S.  Treasurer $40,758  79 

Total  U.  S.  bonds  issued  to  Company  on  260  miles $4,160,000, 

Interest  on  same  for  one  month,  at  6  per  cent $20,800  00 

Excess  for  month  of  October,  retained  by  U.  S.  Treasurer  to  meet 

bonds  at  maturity $19,958  79 


which  contributes  at  the  rate  per  annum  of , $219,505  48 

sufficient,  even  should  there  be  no  increase  in  Government  business,  to  meet  the 
principal  of  these  bonds  in  less  than  19  years,  or  11  years  before  maturity. 


79 

The  following  is  a  Statement  of  the  total  amount  of  Government  busi 
ness  over  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  E.  D.,  from  the  date  the  road 
was  opened  in  1865,  up  to  October  31,  1867;  and  also  of  the  total 
interest  paid,  and  to  be  paid  by  the  United  States  Government,  from 
September  1,  1865,  (date  of  issue  of  bonds  on  1st  section  of  road,) 
to  October  31,  1867,  on  all  bonds  issued  to  this  Company. 

Total  Government  business  up  to  October  31,  1867 $470,136  08 

Fifty  per  cent,  retained  by  law  by  U.  S.  Treasurer 235,068  04 

Total  interest  paid  by  Government  up  to  July  1,  1867, 

on  all  bonds  issued  to  this  Company $173,285  22 

Interest  to  be  paid  by  Government  from  July  1,  1867,  to 
October  31,  1867,  (due  January  1,  1868)  on  all 
bonds  issued  to  this  Company $  70,854  93 

Total  interest  paid  and  to  be  paid  by  Government  up  to  October  31, 

1867,  on  all  bonds  issued  to  this  Company 244,140  15 

Interest  not  yet  refunded  to  the  United  States 9,072  11 


At  the  present  rate  of  business  for  the  Government  this  interest  will  all  be 
fully  met  and  repaid  before  January  1,  1868. 

Until  the  road  was  completed  to  Fort  Riley  135  miles  west  from  the 
initial  point,  little  business  was  done  by  the  Company  for  the  Govern 
ment;  since  that  date,  as  will  be  seen  in  Exhibit  for  12  months  ending 
October  31,  1867,  it  has  been  steadily  and  rapidly  on  the  increase. 

The  following  Statement  of  the  Gross  Tonnage  of  Freight  carried 
for  the  Government  over  the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  E.D.,  for  12  months, 
from  November  1,  1866,  to  October  31,  1867,  shows  the  relative  cost  of 
rail  and  wagon  transportation  across  the  Plains  from  Fort  Leavenworth : 

Total  number  of  tons  of  freight  for  Government 20,343 

Average  distance  carried  by  rail 104  miles. 

Cost  of  transporting  same  by  rail $329,182  57 

The  average  price  paid  by  Government  for  wagon  transportation  on 
the  Plains,  from  1865  to  1867,  inclusive,  was  $1.57  per  100  Ibs.  per  100 
miles.  At  this  rate,  20,343  tons,  for  the  distance  named  above, 

Would  have  cost  the  Goverment $664,321  00 

Deduct  cost  of  transportation  by  rail $329,182  57 

$335,138  43 


so 

Which  shows  a  saving  to  the  Government,  in  12  months,  of  more  than 
the  whole  cost  of  rail  transportation  in  the  period  named. 

(SIGNED)  S.  T.  SMITH, 

Auditor. 


"DENYER"  &  "RATON  MOUNTAIN"  COAL. 


Below  we  give  the  analyses  of  two  samples  of  coal  found  on  the  line  of 
the  Union  Pacific  Railway,  Eastern  Division j  one  from  the  "Denver 
Coal  Fields/'  the  other  from  the  base  of  the  Raton  Mountains,  on  the 
proposed  line  from  Pond  Creek  to  Albuquerque.  Coal  is  found  in  inex 
haustible  quantities,  in  both  localities;  and  on  the  route  to  Albuquerque 
it  crops  out  in  veins  eleven  to  thirteen  feet  in  thickness. 

ANALYSIS  OF  DENVER  COAL. 

Philadelphia,  April  26,  1867. 
To  THE  UNION  PACIFIC  RAILWAY,  E.  D. 

We  have  carefully  examined  the  sample  of  (Denver)  Coal  submitted  to 
us  on  the  19th  inst.,  and  find  it  yields  as  follows: 

Moisture,         ....  9.90  per  cent. 

Volatile  matter,        .         .  45.62       « 

Fixed  Carbon,          .         .         .  40.50 

Ash,  (buff,)     ....  3.00       « 

Sulphur,  ....  0.98 


100.00 


The  percentage  of  sulphur  is  not  at  all  excessive,  and  warrants  the  use 
of  this  coal  as  fuel  under  steam  boilers,  and,  of  course,  elsewhere.     Den- 


82: 

ver  coal  being  also  rich,  in  volatile  matter,  is  well  adapted  to  all  objects 
which  require  a  flaming  fuel,  as  well  as  for  the  manufacture  of  gas. 
(SIGNED)  BOOTH  AND  GTARRETT, 

Analytical  and  Consulting  Chemists. 
ANALYSIS  OF  RATON  MOUNTAIN  COAL. 

Philadelphia,  August  5,  1867. 
To  THE  UNION  PACIFIC  EAILWAY,  E.  D., 

The  sample  of  coal  from  Raton  Mountains  yields  an  analysis  as  fol 
lows: 

Moisture  at  212°  Farenheit,  4.74  per  cent. 
Sulphur,          ....  .16 

Volatile  matter,        •  37.20       " 

Fixed  carbon,  .         .         .  53.90       " 

Ash,        .....  4.00       « 

100.00 

The  above  analysis  yields  at  the  rate  of  437.6  Bbs.  of  illuminating  gas 
per  ton  of  2000  fbs.,  which  is  equivalent  to  7439.2  cubic  feet.  You  will 
see  from  the  above  that  your  coal  compares  very  favorably  with  any  of 
those  regarded  as  the  best  for  steam  generating  purposes,  and  with  the 
majority  of  those  used  for  the  manufacture  of  illuminating  gas. 

(SIGNED)  WILLIAMS  &  Moss, 

Analytical  and  Consulting  Chemists. 


•     • 


